•The road to an incorruptible civil service – Oyo-Ita

By Levinus Nwabughiogu

Worried by the bad state of the federal civil service, the Head of Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, recently, unveiled four cardinal objectives launched by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to give a new lease of life to the service it is structured to be goal-oriented by implementing the policies of government.

Vice president Osinbajo

But the system had long derailed to such an extent that many believed it is synonymous with corruption.

Consequently, the fundamental principles of legality, impartiality, Independence, professionalism and loyalty which were the hallmarks of civil service are compromised by worker who also made nepotism, favouritism, politics, truancy and indeed, laissez–faire attitude to work their personal lot.

This is what the federal civil service has become. In today’s Nigeria, an average civil servant is a business man or a petty trader who has turned his or her office into a shop. Again, there a is rising culture of impunity. To many critics, the civil service has jettisoned merit and reward system for integrity and handwork, promoting religion and ethnicity as the prerequisites for employment.

Unfortunately, the end-result of this odorous development has been the catastrophe and the serial failure recorded by the service.

The above represents the summary of the remarks by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the Head of Service, Winifred Oyo-Ita, at the inaugural quarterly civil service lecture series, held under the theme: “Civil Service in a Change Environment: The Change is Now”, held at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Osinbajo, who was on hand to launch a three-year strategic plan initiated by the Civil Service, said that a corrupt-free country was dependent on corrupt free civil servants.

According to him, civil servants had no reason to subvert the will of the people in the execution of government policies. Osinbajo said: “Despite the criticisms that civil servants are subjected to, I am sure that you know that sometimes civil servants are described as ‘evil servants’ but you must take heart.

The best professions are usually the most criticized, but I must say that the wholesome privilege of public service is very easily abused or taken for granted. The public service elite represents as we have seen the most important factor in mass development.

“The power to do great good or evil lies with a few people who form what we refer to as our civil service. When some in such an elite see the opportunity as one for self enrichment by corrupt practices then the nation faces a monumental tragedy. “There are no excuses anywhere in a nation where the majority are still poor and are struggling to make a living that anyone who has the benefit of good education and good fortune of a job in the civil service should subvert that service for personal gains, I think it’s the greatest tragedy that a nation can experience”. To Oyo-Ita, who became the Head of Service at the era of “change”, having been appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari on October 21, 2015, it requires more than rhetoric to get the civil service in Nigeria going.

The need for a paradigm shift obviously accounted for why she spoke with so much passion and gusto at the forum, principally eliciting two layers of impressions. One: the richness of her vision and two, her determination to reposition the service. To realize this, Oyo-Ita at the forum unveiled the Strategic plan for the Civil Service from 2017 to 2019, marshalling out four cardinal objectives.

The four goals were: (I) Develop and Institutionalize an Efficient, Productive, Incorruptible and Citizen-Centred (EPIC) Culture in the Civil Service (ii) Design and Implement an Enterprise Content Management System (ECM) (iii) Develop Entrepreneurial Culture and Commercial Orientation in the Civil Service and; (iv) Improve Welfare and Benefit Packages for Civil Servants Speaking at the function, the Head of Service said: “The Federal Public Service needs to change its narrative when interacting with Nigerians who are demanding more accountability at all levels of government especially as regards the quality of public service delivery.

“The deriving agenda therefore is efficiency, effectiveness and integrity in the delivery of services by public sector institutions for the good and progress of the country and services to its citizens. The civil service is at the core of this reform and service expectations.

“The civil service, as a key national platform for actualization of the aspirations of the nation has over the years witnessed varieties of reforms to capture the mood of the moment, but more importantly to provide a more lasting trajectory for the progressive development of our country. “It has to be a dynamic institution striving to meet the reasons for its very existence. It is for these and many more others that we have taken up the task and responsibility to reposition the service”.