The Niger State government recently through the state Civil Service Commission said it has sacked no fewer than 754 civil servants from its payroll. The government clarified that out of the figure, 380 were compulsorily retired while 374 others were dismissed. Those dismissed were found to have violated extant Civil Service rules bordering on salary inflation, employment racketeering, pension fraud, age falsification and certificate forgery.
The Civil Service is the machinery that implements government’s programmes while the civil servants are the operators of such machinery who must ignite the flames of competence, dignity, immense skills and integrity in line with the government’s policy direction.
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A civil service occupied by certificate forgers, corrupt and questionable characters is far from actualising the government’s people-oriented programmes. In this light, the state government’s decision is arguably reasonable.
Although it generated disquiet from certain publics on the basis that it would further worsen the unemployment rate and discomfort lives which is also well-founded, the government’s action to promote 6,835 and additional recruitment of 1,133 from 2016 to date was sensitive and through and through.
The state council of the NLC also deserves some credit for the caution, restraint and maturity exercised even as it expressed strong resolve to pursue the rights of its members with ‘genuine complaints’ without causing industrial disharmony, sideshows and distractions.
Nonetheless, the state government must take further steps to extend its long arm against those in the top cadres of the civil service who engage in similar acts of misconduct in order to prove that the dictum ‘no sacred cow’ is real. A situation where certain directors and permanent secretaries, who have reached their retirement age are still in their offices and drawing humongous salaries that could pay many new workforces is ‘white-collar banditry’ and an avoidable drain on the state’s purse.
Going forward, governments at all levels must commit reasonable resources to employ technological tools that will automatically de-list workers who have clocked retirement from its payroll; detect “would-be” civil servants with fake certificates during recruitment processes before issuance of appointment letters because dismissal many years into the service on these grounds is not always pleasant.
Additionally, the state government should expedite actions to fill the vacancies in the critical areas of state needs before some unpatriotic few in the service use the available spaces to funnel illegal salaries into their pockets. Also, in filling the about 6,000 vacancies from which the governor’s CPS disclosed that over 5,000 are from voluntary retirements, the government through the state Civil Service Commission must ensure transparent and fair processes for the best, youthful qualified candidates to emerge. It must try to resist undue pressures from those desperate politicians that have incorporated white-collar job slots into their constituency projects for political capital.
Muhammad Danjuma Abubakar resides in Minna
