AS I was saying the journey through the public service wilderness took me to the pre-national assembly forerunning too: Even before the inauguration of the first session of the National Assembly in June 1999, I had been covering the forerunners who prepared the way for the return of the most sensitive arm in a democracy: the National Assembly, Abuja: Let’s read my account to the retired federal Permanent Secretaries:
‘…Alhaji Ibrahim Salim was then Director-General/Clerk-Designate, National Assembly Liaison Office. He was later to be pioneer Clerk, National Assembly, (CNA). At the same International Conference Centre, I met several officers including Nasir Arab, Yemi Ogunyomi, Salisu Maikasua, Sani Omolori, all whom later became CNA, National Assembly.
I am still in touch with them. I covered the evolution of the same National Assembly’s bureaucracy when their NASS Act was made in 2003 and there emerged a structure: Clerk NASS as Head of (Legislative) Service, Deputy Clerk National Assembly, (DCNA) as Permanent Secretary, Clerk of the Senate and Clerk, House of Representatives as Permanent Secretary while Deputy Clerk, Senate and House are designated as Directors respectively. I reported this development contextually according to their law in National Assembly. So, I wonder why the National Assembly’s retired Head of Legislative Service, Permanent Secretaries aren’t part of Council of Retired Federal Permanent Secretaries (CORFEPS).
‘The PS-beat And My Writing Style’
The experience from these public service beats has shaped and enhanced my writing style as a journalist. I still report write, contextualise and write a weekly column, (Inside Stuff With Martins Oloja), comment on radio and television programmes including ones long one before this democracy with the late James Audu on NTA’sMedia in Focus and a Chance to Meet. I was regular on TVC’s Journalists Hang Out before October 2021 when I moved from Newsroom to Boardroom as MD/ Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian. In all of these, I hardly step on toes because I have been writing as if I were a civil servant: I have been writing, deconstructing issues, people, leaders, dealers, etc without personal involvement and sentiments.
I always like to present only facts as civil servants write their reports. I am document-minded. I have many Reports, White Papers, Committee Reports of even National Assembly Hansard, documents and enabling laws of so many commissions and agencies of governments. I have a rich study where I can research anything on public policies and sundry issues. I owe this to my coverage of public policies these past 36 years. I am very grateful to all the senior civil servants from whom I have learnt to enhance my journalistic skills to be somewhat neutral and fair as a writer and commentator.
Now to the brass tacks: reflections on the federal public service, an outsider’s perspective? (May be an outsider-insider’s perspective from my long introduction as an insider, after all).
Let me state clearly from the outset that I just need to make some observations from my diary of events and Issues I have covered and commented upon over the years. I mean to speak to what I feel should be done to align the objectives of political leadership to the efficiency of the bureaucracy for national development. I don’t need to tell this body of senior citizens and eminent civil servants what civil service should be and where the rains began to beat the service that set the tone for post- independence glorious era.
I would just like to share my perspective as an outsider who has covered and sometimes ‘covered up’ some issues in public interest. Sometimes, senior journalists, notably editors ‘cover up’ some dirty details about their countries if such details are capable of undermining public and security interests. In other words, often times, we are conflict-sensitive too as gatekeepers.
But let me do some executive summary (from my notebook) of what I believe as the way some of us see the service today. And flowing from that will be what to do to salvage the system, which I must say is near collapse.
Let me therefore state what should actually form part of my conclusion here: I believe that if the civil service is reformed to reflect what it used to be, there will be less cases for the anti-corruption agencies to handle. They (anti-corruption agencies) will in fact be like some correctional/custodial centres (prisons) that authorities in some Scandinavian countries are shutting down because they can’t have enough convicts, suspects and others to put in custody anymore. I mean here that most of the cases the anti-corruption bodies, especially ICPC, EFCC and Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal have been handling emanate un-disputably and largely from public service and so could have been prevented if the institutions from which these cases often emerge have applied the rules of engagement. And here is the thng, if the chief accounting officers and other gatekeepers had discharged their responsibilities accordingly, there would have been no need for anti-corruption agencies. Interpretation: It is a failure of regulation in the public sector that led to enactment subsidiary legislations to deal with corruption. I will return to this construct later…
And here is the thing, for the change we seek to be more than a mere slogan, it must also temper official attitudes in the public service. And so it is necessary to note that we in the media have this perception that you can deduce from the notebook below:
§ A political will is needed to reform all arms of government and their institutions. The simple truth is that despite the leadership and vision of any President, and regardless of the merits and commitment of every member of his team, without change in the capacity and attitude of the public service, good intentions will not produce change. Two weeks ago, the president summoned the Head of Service and her team and complained about implementation of his ‘renewed hope” policies.
§ Bureaucracies instinctively try to resist change even when change is inevitable. The public service we are here to deconstruct, consists of institutions and persons that enjoy wide latitudes of constitutional protection, inter and intra-institutional bonding, as well as social power.
§ Most, if not all, of the malfeasance by political office holders, are quite often facilitated by public servants. Even when the greed of the politicians and their associates in the corporate boardrooms are tamed, critical accomplices remain embedded in the public service.
§ Many of the powerful and permanent public servants appear unrepentant and most are still “doing business as usual”. Despite the reform efforts in the past, there has been little attitudinal change in public officials.
§ There is an obvious need to re-examine the size and scope of state institutions and the competence of their personnel to position them for effective and transparent government service delivery.
§ Those who are hailing the new deal, Oronsaye panel’s report should note this context: size and scope of the state institutions within the construct of the state of the economy.
§ They must become fit for purpose, that is: “to formulate and carry out policies; to administrate/administer efficiently and with minimum bureaucracy; to control graft, corruption, and bribery; to maintain a high level of transparency and accountability; and most importantly, to enforce laws.”
§ It is not only the Executive arms of government and their institutions that need to change, but so do the Legislatures with which there is a crisis of confidence nationwide. People are frustrated by their costs, their lack of productivity and their unaccountability.
§ The State Houses of Assembly have long abdicated any meaningful function, save for the occasional threats or actual impeachment of errant State Governors who were not deft enough to suborn them.
§ Under the watch of their Councils, the Local Government tier of administration is virtually comatose. Most of their functions and funds are often times unlawfully hijacked by the State executives without as much as a whimper of protest from the Councils. When we consider that over 42% of our national revenues are allocated to State and Local Governments, it is obvious that they constitute veritable financial black holes.
Legislative Failures…
Meanwhile, perceived legislative failures in these two tiers of government, if allowed to persist, will have dire consequences on our national progress. More important, the very idea of creating Local Governments to bring development to the grassroots will be defeated. In mitigation and indeed as a first step, it is high time the so-called “Joint Accounts” were abolished, thereby freeing local government resources from plunder by State Governments.
§ Let the Local Governments be truly responsible for the management of their revenues and the execution of their projects. At least at that level, the reckoning for failure will be swift since the Council Chairmen cannot take cover from immunity even when in office since the Constitutional Immunity Clause does not cover them.
§ As for the National Assembly, most Nigerians as we have covered in the news media consider the state and national assemblies as totally unproductive and the members largely engrossed with themselves and only their welfare. Apart from what many consider as their occasional televised “show” public hearings, their operations remain largely opaque. The civil service of the legislative arm assist them in preserving this opaqueness/opacity as it they were not part of the federal establishment. They just illegally extended the tenure of their directorate cadre to 65 years without considering the common services clauses of the Public Service Rules and Regulation.
§ The Constitutional guarantee of independence of the legislature cannot, and should not, provide a canopy to hide full disclosures about their inner workings, actual remunerations, and a number of other personal benefits, which are in some cases fraudulently disguised under capital expenditure. There should be more transparency so that the public can objectively judge whether their output is commensurate with their cost. They could not have hidden these public affairs records success fully without the support of their civil servants. That is why the senior cadres, CAN, DCNA and retired Clerks of NASS should be members of this your elite Club, CORFEPS.
To be continued…
Oloja is editor of The Guardian newspaper and his column, Inside Stuff, runs on the back page of the newspaper on Sundays. The column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.