The Nigerian public service is irretrievably dysfunctional with the cardinal characteristic as a vault of corruption. The civil servants and the amoral middle class are the foremost destroyers of Nigeria.
During the military era, everyone puts the blame of Nigeria’s dysfunction on the military. Under various democratic regimes, we blame the politicians for all ills but there is a constant enabling entity common under the various systems of government we have experimented with – the civil service.
The civil service is a problem of major league proportions. We cannot achieve meaningful and sustainable development if those entrusted with public office routinely sow the seeds of corruption and partake in its proceeds.
Have you asked who drafts the memos for politicians? Who are those making the submissions for appropriation
of funds? Who disburses the funds? It would be near impossible for politicians to engage in corruption if public servants refuse to be used as means to corrupt ends or if they decline to be willing accomplices in corrupt schemes. Politicians cannot and do not act alone.
They act in concert with civil servants. Procedurally, politicians cannot initiate transactions on behalf of government and complete them without public servants. The officers in charge of public till are not politicians but civil servants, no stealing or conversion can take place without their active connivance. The golden age of selfless public servants is long gone, the civil servants we have today are not different from the politicians they serve; they are undercover
politicians. Add to that are instances where partisan demagogues are appointed as permanent secretaries, commissioners or ministers in place of seasoned technocrats. If we want a clean government, the startup point must be the civil service. A clean and reformed civil service will make it very difficult for any politician to steal public funds or convert our joint patrimony for private use.
For Nigeria to succeed, no level of corruption should be normalized or accepted as tolerable. We must denounce
and oppose all manners of corruption and cleanse our country of this vice. At all levels, we need to strengthen people’s faith in the institutions of the state and in the political leadership of this country.
Mediocrity, impunity and corruption are our biggest impediment to good governance. There can be no good governance in a country where corruption is currency. Good governance requires honesty in the discharge of public duties and corrupt elements cannot be expected to be honest in their discharge of public functions.
The civil service mandarins are brewed in the same pot, they are almost always complicit in white-collar
crimes. They believe their deliberate subterfuge and economic sabotage hurts no one.
The public service in Nigeria is a conglomerate of gifted mediocrity and sloth. It is very risk averse and
insufficiently innovative at a time when the world is moving rather fast with changes requiring creative minds and creative solutions. The service is rigged with rudimentary skills in technology, procurement, service design and
delivery. They routinely fail to reduce demand and cost because they are more focused on response instead of prevention. Nigeria has a long history of civil service reforms. Despite reforms, the service is a hopeless bureaucracy unfit for good purpose. An unwillingness to challenge bad performance is its underpinning and it is undermining its efficiency and image.
The time has come to look again at our system of administration and consider the case for more radical reforms. The civil service as it stands is bloated, corrupt and unfit. A wider debate is needed about how to shield the service from political interference and ensure that the brightest and best are drawn into public service.
– By Balogun Emmanuel Funsho, from University Of Ilorin.
He can be reached on 07034444976 or via irule9ja@gmail.com
