BY POLYCARP ONWUBIKO

IT is high time legislators in the State Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly waded into the atrocities being perpetrated by the professional associations and some government agencies which subject civil servants to avoidable exasperation and frustration in their civil service career progressions.

Before the unfortunate military interregnum in the governance of Nigeria, things were quite normal in the civil service as the Federal and Regional civil services had their respective schemes of service and Civil Service Rules. This normal scenario was not surprising because the political leaders held sacred the uncompromising principles, ethos and essence of choosing a federal structure of government due to the diverse socio-cultural background of the ethnic groups that made up the Federation of Nigeria.

Since military rule is a monstrous aberration in the administration of a sovereign nation like Nigeria, all kinds of aberration were introduced and consolidated as ideal conditions, the principal one being the running of the settled Federal structure as a unitary structure.

Sadly, due to incurably flawed electoral processes since the return of civilian administration, all manner of people have manipulated their ways into the state Houses of Assembly and the national legislature. These legislators have apparently pretended not to see any thing grossly abnormal in the perpetuation of a unitary structure of government deftly woven by a section of the ethnic groups that held immense sway during the regrettable military interregnum.

In the running of the civil service today, all manner of insurmountable road blocks and impediments have been created which have subjected civil servants to exasperation and even damaged their dream of a successful career progression and happy retirement after a meritorious and dedicated service to their father land.

Due to the baneful influence of corruption and maladministration in virtually all aspects of our national life, some retired workers from government and organised public sector had sought devious ways to amass wealth through brazen extortion of unsuspecting university graduate employees and job seekers.

They formed what they called “professional associations” and manipulated their ways into government institutions like National Council on Establishment which is a body that prescribes entry qualifications for employment and career progressions in the public service.

Apart from the normal and adequate academic programmes in the universities and polytechnics, these professional associations forced their supposed “professional examinations” in the civil service as a stringent condition for superior cadres, career progressions, promotions, advancement and conversions of staff who had been employed based on scheme of service based on the university and polytechnic course contents and syllables.

The abnormal consolidation of a unitary system of government surreptitiously injected into governance by the military leadership and perpetrated by their ethno-religious apologists and collaborators, helped to perpetuate this abominable bogus rules in the federal and state civil services.

The leadership of these supposed professional associations like ICAN, ANAN, COREN and others, and even an agency like Administrative Staff College Of Nigeria (ASCON), have created the spurious impression that university and polytechnic degrees/certificates course contents and syllables, even post graduate Degree holders like Masters and Doctorate Degrees, are substandard to their so called “professional examinations”.

In order words, they deviously claim that their examinations are superior and would enable the holders to perform miracles in the civil service, the organised public sector and even private business organisations.

It is sad that the antics of these professional associations mesmerized the heads of service of the federation and state civil services, including the chairmen of the federal and civil service commissions to the extent that they were unable to exercise simple reasoning over the spurious claims of these fraudulent elite groups in Nigeria.

The most agonising one is the fraudulent and brazen manipulation by ASCON on the leadership of the federal and state civil services.

This agency of the Federal Government ASCON, was established simply to offer a platform for short term training programmes, workshops and seminars for civil servants similar to the Federal Training Centres located in some states of the federation.

Polycarp Onwubiko is a Public affairs commentator Awka, Anambra State