WHAT played out as early retirement of PC Asiodu in 1975 was not the only time that his confidence, courage and capacity to speak truth to power would be an albatross to the deployment of his talents for the national good. There were two other instances that I was privileged to be availed of by SGF Chief Ufot Ekaette when I was working with him, as I hinted early in this Review.
On Chief Ekaette’s appointment as SGF, he met me as one of the directors in his office. Chief Asiodu was the Chief Economic Adviser to the President and Vice Chairman/CEO of the National Planning Commission. But he was the one that was guiding my boss and I on certain key functions of the office, especially in crafting the responsibilities of the Political Office Holders. There were by far more appointed ministers than the number of Ministries available. We ended up having not just Ministers and Ministers of State but multiple Ministers in the Presidency.
One day, in response to my comment to my boss about how helpful the institutional memory and creative ideas of Chief Asiodu had been to us in that assignment, my boss confessed to me that, indeed, it was Chief Asiodu that was initially earmarked as the South-South candidate for the post of SGF and was so told, a promise that held till about two days to swearing in, but that many politicians felt that he would be too strong in the position.
My boss told me that that concern was what led his Governor Obong Victor Attah to approach President-elect Obasanjo that since he wanted someone with civil service experience of not less than a federal Permanent Secretary he had one with such an experience but who was also very meek, and that when Obasanjo asked who he had in mind, as soon as his name was mentioned Obasanjo immediately agreed saying that he remembered him as an effective officer who had once served as Principal Private Secretary to Gowon as Head of State. It was my first time coming to the realization that strong character in a perm sec could make their Principal uncomfortable.
It is an irony that, even the position of CEA-P and Vice Chairman/CEO of the National Planning Commission that was seen as the comfortable landing for PC Asiodu by his principals was not so comfortable after all. He had to exit the administration midway in 2001 in circumstances that reminded of the 1975 episodes. I thought they say, “lightning does not strike twice”? I guess the exception lies in the courage to speak truth to power and capacity to not compromise one’s integrity.
Barely 8 years later I had a near similar experience in my tour of duty as Perm sec in one of the largest federal ministries which, at that time, initially had a Minister and two Ministers of State, but the new Minister brought in via a cabinet reshuffle found me too proud to cope with, thus forcing my deployment out of the Ministry, but not out of the service. That is a story for another day. Today’s is Asiodu’s not mine.
Excellent Working Relationship, Out of Mutual Respect and Lasting a Lifetime: The Gowon – Asiodu Example
General Gowon has had to cut short his stay abroad to be here. I was looking forward to seeing the HCSF here in person as a symbol of the connection between the present and the past, or shall I say, a link to where it all began, the source of the fountain of public service excellence, dedication, patriotism, professionalism, and integrity, as a confirmation of the beginning of the restoration of all that is good for the civil service and the nation.
Unfortunately, I am told she is on a very important national assignment as Chairman of the National Council on Establishments. The honour of meeting all these “public service greats” now rests on her representative, the Perm Sec Ecological Fund Office who, as it has turned out, is also well suited for the role in her own rights as the daughter of a colleague of Izoma Asiodu . She is Aisha Ndayako.
Asiodu’s CORFEPS Lessons For The Current Generation of Leaders In the Civil Service
Asiodu is not just a trailblazer but a Pathfinder- what the Yoruba calls “Atona” for he has not only blazed the trail but has continued to light paths in the public service to show us the way.
Philip Asiodu – A Legacy of Dedication and Service shows that true Public Service leadership does not end with retirement. It continues throughout life in the capacity/ability to express patriotic personal views as perspectives in nation building. PC Asiodu loves this country like no one else. All through this book he has shown that he was not as pained by his early retirement as he was with the jettisoning of the 1975-1980 National Development Plan by the Murtala/Obasanjo Administration.
What pains him till this day is the fact that the administration not only abandoned the Plan, but the process of planning and the discipline that planning entails. Yet, he remained committed to thinking for the country and putting forward his ideas for those on the stage to deploy. He formed CORFEPS to enable his colleagues in retirement to have a viable but joint platform for advising Government on issues of national importance. It is why the motto of CORFEPS is “Continuing Service” which, again, is a motto that was crafted for CORFEPS by no other person than its foundation Chairman and now Chairman of the CORFEPS Board of Trusties, the one and only Izoma Philip Asiodu!
I am proud to say that CORFEPS, of which I have been the National Publicity Secretary since the baton of chairmanship was handed by PC Asiodu in 2014 to Mrs Francesca Yetunde Emanuel, now of blessed memory, has been able to sustain the spirit with which it was established and nurtured under Asiodu. Accordingly, in the same way that the CORFEPS executive at inception was made of the high integrity and incorruptible performers of his era, with him as Chairman, Mrs Francesca Emanuel and Chief Tugbobo as Vice Chairmen, Chief Tunji Olutola as Secretary General and, John Edozien, Chief David Olorunleke, Moibi Shittu, Mrs Moji Rufai, and Moses Akpobasah, among others, populating the executive, we now also have Mahmud Yayale Ahmed as Chairman, and Engr Ebele Okeke and Akin Arikawe as 1st and 2nd Vice Chairmen respectively.
Additionally, we have been very deliberate in ensuring that all other positions on the Council’s executive members are similarly filled through a tactical process of endorsing for its election only people with unblemished record and distinguished career in their service years. By so doing, the CORFEPS Executive as the face of retired federal permanent secretaries will continue the Asiodu legacy to both serve as inspiration to those still in the service and enable them to speak truth to power, in offering non-partisan but sound and patriotic advice to any sitting administration.
The corollary is that retired permanent secretaries who do not measure up to these standards and ideals, notwithstanding their being unconditionally eligible to be members of CORFEPS, would need to exercise caution of visible association, conscious that their appearance in public service-related gatherings could elicit silent murmurs of not-so-complimentary comments behind their back.
Within the context of the concept of Family Trees of Public Service Excellence, which I propounded in my recently published book, Leadership In The Nigerian Civil Service: Five Decades of Lessons In Performance, Encounters and Triumphs, Asiodu is one trunk from which many good branches and, by extension, hundreds of twigs have emerged. While it has been an honour for many of us to locate our spots, as it were, on the Asiodu Tree of Public Service Excellence, with others locating theirs on the Allison Ayida’s, Abdul Aziz Attah’s, Ibrahim Damcida’s, Ahmed Joda’s, Francesca Yetunde Emanuel’s, Adamu Fika’s etc. as individual offshoots, we are also committed to establishing ourselves as new Trees of Public Service Excellence.
That way, in no time, a forest of public service excellence will emerge to smother the variegated rogue trees of public service corruption and public service inefficiency that have sprouted all over the public service landscape in the last two decades to tarnish the image of the civil service.
One Issue That The Bikini of Hallmarks of Labour Has Effectively Shut Out
Though not featured in this book, because of its focus, is what should reignite the debate on State indigeneship. Mr Philip Chibuzo Asiodu the father of Izoma attended St Gregory’s Grammar School, Lagos, lived and worked in Lagos. The junior Philip didnt just attend Kings College, he was born in Lagos, he is married to a Lagosian, and he has worked, raised his children and grandchildren and lived most of his 91 years on earth in Lagos. Is Philip Asiodu a Lagosian? Chief Patricia didnt say.
The question is not can but that given our stereotypes and perhaps prejudices, even for the enlightened audience seated here in this hall, if, as we finish this programme, we step out to see posters of one of his children aspiring to an elective position as a Lagos indigene, what will be our reactions? May be that is why Hallmarks of Labour has not ventured in that direction. But such an issue is something that we should ponder about – as part of the primordial sentiments that do more harm than good to our nation. We profess that “the Labours of our Heroes Past shall never be in vain”, yet by our stereotypes we continue to dig graves for the labours of those heroes.
Conclusion
Philip Chikwuedo Asiodu – A legacy of Dedication and Service has been well put together, as a compendium of the views of PC Asiodu. His birth details, the rich and solid Curriculum vitae in the early chapters of the book, as well the testimonials and tributes at 90 as the final act on pages 532-552 provide a solid basis for the authority displayed by PC Asiodu at every public presentation of his views.
The fact that the compilation of his public presentations which have been put together as Perspectives in this book span only the period from 2001 to 2022, while the subject of interest entered the service of this country in 1957 shows that there are numerous presentations, policy papers and technical reports, panel reports etc by the subject, that must have been published elsewhere, including the Hallmarks of Labour Series. It would have been easier for the reader to track those presentations if they had been arranged in a discernible order, either of dates but more appropriately on subject matter or sectorial basis.
However, the absence of such an arrangement does not take away the quality of the book. As a compendium, Asiodu – A Legacy of Dedication and Service is a treasure house for career civil servants, public administration practitioners and researchers as well as those with keen interest in governance, public service and institutional reforms.
The big question is:
What are the Hallmarks of the Labour of our current generation of leaders in elected and appointive political offices, namely: Perm Secs, Special Advisers, Ministers, CEOs of Extra-Ministerial Departments, Chairmen of Commissions, Head of the Civil Service, and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, among which are the positions held by Izoma Philip Asiodu?
Asiodu’s life, A Legacy of Dedication and Service to his nation, as captured by Chief Patricia Otuedon-Arawore in Hallmarks of Labour stirs our conscience to self-introspection to enable us to re-direct our path before it is too late.
Dr Goke Adegoroye’s review excerpts concluded…
- Oloja is former editor of The Guardian newspaper and his column, Inside Stuff, runs on the back page of the newspaper on Sunday. The column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Monday.