LET’S start and see what an efficient bureaucratic Civil service and university should be like. The examinations leading to admission should all be held on the same day throughout the federation. The results will be posted on a day to be announced, so that everyone knows. Admission to the universities based on the results to be announced the same day throughout the federation.

Universities  to publish their calendars at the beginning of each session. Those to be granted accommodation at which halls of residence will also be announced and everyone would know. Graduation  days  will  also  be  published  by  the  universities  and graduates given their degrees on the day of graduation.  Meanwhile,  those who want their transcripts should give notice and all should be ready within four weeks. All administrative charges to be collected on due date so that no graduate or past  student would have anything to do with the examination and records office so far as transcripts are concerned.

This system is to be replicated in the secondary  and   primary schools.  It    has     been   done    before.  Our    primary    schools   were run efficiently by the missions or local governments or even private ones like Corona. There was no messing about with regards to dates of examination; homework, discipline, cleanliness, etc. When students went to Ibadan University, their halls of residence were clearly determined, they checked in and started classes at due time on due date. Our higher school certificate (HSC) or A level results were published in the government gazette on the day promised. The Minister of Education should gird up his loins and get to work, through the NUC and all other auxiliary organisation under him.

A strict Principal, a strict Headmaster, a strict Vice chancellor, Dean, Heads of Department, these are the building blocks of a good education system. Moreover can you imagine what kudos it will give the government and the Minister for people to know that this is a fair and no-nonsense Administration. Such discipline could be replicated in the Armed Forces not ruling through Fear but ruling with discipline and fairness. None fears justice except the guilty. If it is clear what would happen to you if you fail to meet the standards as a Headmaster, Principal, and V.C etc; no one would even have the courage to appeal when a case has been so patently hopeless. I would not go to intercede for my own children when they knowingly break the rules.

Once you enthrone efficiency and transparency corruption runs away .The trick is not to relent; once you do corruption is back.   If corruption is to be substantially reduced in the National Assembly transparency must be enthroned, salaries of all National Assembly members  in the last four years before the last elections  including all allowances,constituency,travel, estacode, etc. year by year, person by person should be published and made public.

The freedom of information Act is a law in Nigeria but the National Assembly seems determined to frustrate it when it comes to releasing their salaries, allowances and other emoluments. If we taught the National Assembly to obey its own laws it will earn the respect of those who elected them. But if, as it is now obvious, they do not want to release information so basic and easily obtainable in all the internet search machines. Why should anyone respect them?

The pursuit of efficiency must be the guiding principle of the Civil Service. The President complained that his budget was mangled by Civil Servants. Sacking of Vice chancellors and University Councils was a mistake; again the President apologised and blamed the Civil Service for wrong advice. In the old Civil service, the Cabinet Office and Cabinet Secretariat prepared all council memoranda including the Budget and circulated them well before the Wednesday Federal Council Meetings (only the Budget memos were circulated on the day of the meeting). The old Cabinet Office had an office called the End Room, full of confidential secretaries who must finish the Wednesday Council meeting minutes that night and circulate the conclusions of the Cabinet minutes by 8am on Thursday. The Governor of the Central Bank brought the balance sheet of the nation every morning at 7:30am. He brought it in person and briefed the Head of State/President on how the Nigeria economy stood every morning. The Civil Service had giants like C. O. Lawson, Abdul Attah, Joe Iyalla, Alison Ayida, Philip Asiadu, Ime Ebong, Gorbi etc.

These were men of calibre, professional, unafraid and gave the best advice any, Government could want.

The President’s problems with his Budget would not have risen if there is an efficient Civil service. Budget is usually the results of complicated and prolonged negotiations between and among ministries. What can be accommodated or given priority, within revenue and even within an ideological stand. For example, a Presidency that believes in a balanced budget or one that encourages savings and a surplus budget. These negotiations were carried out between ministries, their results forwarded to Aso Rock to check on what was electorally promised and what was practicable. Thereafter it goes back to Finance and the sub-committees of the National Assembly for further discussion until some version of a compromise is reached. Sometimes the so called constituency projects i.e the items the National Assembly in the Budget may be problematic. If they were not in tune with the Executive’s wishes or if the National Assembly removes matters dear to the Executive, negotiations continue until an accommodation is found. That accommodation cannot be part of the budget unless it gets Executive approval even if reluctantly done.

There would be no case in which the Executive and his Ministers will publicly disown a Budget on the basis that it had been doctored by Civil Servants or anyone else. The Executive has a lot of leeway so far as the Budget is concerned even after it has been passed. Economic conditions may deteriorate such that the budget cannot be implemented as presented. Or there may be a surplus and the executive needs more money and would go for further appropriations. The Executive may ignore parts of the budget or do part implement. But a wise Executive does not resort to such tactics, because it may lead to impeachment. At that point, the stakes have gone so high, communication have broken down and a crisis is being played out.

The offices of the, SGF and Head of Service are a mishmash of politics and bureaucracy – this must stop. Mr. President must insist on an efficient productive Civil Service otherwise his administration would be like a car without an engine. It would not work.

Changing Colleges of Education to Universities is a sign of inefficiency and the practice must stop. So should this nonsense of plethora of special universities, such as the Petroleum University, Maritime University etc. it is unheard of. In pushing these anomalies, someone claimed N13 billion for the land! What parameters are used to judge the Civil Service and the Police? Where are the statistics of solved and unsolved crimes? These must be important for promotion and for measuring the crime rate – whether it’s going up or down.

Cleanliness of Civil Service environment must be undertaken. Too often the offices are dirty and dingy. It is not always necessary for efficiency to cost money e.g.  Old Police College in Ikeja was a fantastic clean police college, roads well laid out, lawns beautifully kept, police recruits, ultra clean and well behaved. In fact efficiency can save money.

Mr. Kale the head of Bureau for Statistics rebased our economy last year. Rebasing our economy was patently a political move: it was shameful. Now, Mr. Kale says Nigeria’s population may not be 170 million. How can the Director- General of the Bureau of Statistics be so vague?

How, When, Why? What have they done with the money? These should be constant questions we must always ask political figures.

Cheating in travel expenses is rampant now in the Civil Service. A crack down is called for. Money paid to principals or Head of schools are not spent on the teachers or civil servants. Some principals put the money in 30 day deposit accounts. Others do not pay transfer allowances or setting down allowances in full – they convert most of the money to their personal use believing that newly recruited civil servants or those on transfer dare not report.

There should be sanctions for waste against the State and Local Governments. This is because today the waste is really incredible. A good 30% to 40% of expenditure could be saved, if the Government is seriously minded to do so. The State Government, when efficient, collects greater internally generated revenue.

Maintenance of roads, budget performance monitor should be reinstituted and enforced. The Civil Service is too unresponsive and too arrogant, for example, the civil service does not reply to letters. Governor Lateef Jakande’s example is worth following. Every day he was in his house at 5pm and anyone who wanted to see him was admitted the hall and he listened to complaints from 5pm to 7pm. I do not believe there was one instance of reported corruption. The President and Governors should have time to listen to people directly. The whole mess of withholding tax; dormant accounts in banks are all avenues of corruption and inefficiency: dividend payments which run into billions are not collected and paid. All these matters should be dealt with.

Registration of birth/deaths – who does this? Should it be Local Governments? It is in the Local Government’s schedule of duties, why are they not doing it? The Local Governments must be made efficient: if they are not, the Federal Government should withhold further advance of money. Let them go to court: the Federal Government must enlist public support: and it will get it to fight State and Local Government inefficiency.

General taxation of all adults above a certain age has become an urgent necessity tax receipts – already people have forgotten that without tax clearance you cannot get passports, bid for jobs, open bank accounts etc. More restrictions should be applied to those who do not pay taxes.

Payment of tax gives the right to demand accountability from the Government, which must strive to reduce the gap between Government and the Governed through projects and better communications. If we are poor, why these sirens, 14 car escorts- many of them, bullet-proof and all those Mobile Policemen? They should be sent to their duties and the work of keeping peace and investigating crimes.

Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) should monitor deteriorating GSM services. Roaming charges are ridiculous and a clear rip off.

Audit Departments in parastatals and ministries should not only be expanded – especially now in the digital age, but strengthened. It is possible to have effective monitoring in a digital age: from monitoring to enforcement is but a short step. All ministries and Local Government Areas etc. to be online.         Attempts must be made to tackle inefficiency in the National Assembly, State Assemblies and Local Government Area Councils.

Roving body of Auditors should be established to check all expenditure; expand the role of Code of Conduct Bureau – and the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission: there must be some statement as to how money was spent: and how it was mobilized.

In this period of austerity and in tune with the economic indices, pensions of entitled political holders including the President and Governors, must be drastically reviewed with a view to reduce them substantially  – the present terms of pension are  ridiculous and unsustainable.

The Government should strengthen the position and role of the Ombudsman – Public Complaints Commission: give them originating functions.

If DPR is efficient we would not have 5000 registered tankers and twice or three times that number unregistered.

All tankers should be moved to places designated outside towns and only those due for loads to come in – they have chocked Lagos almost to death. Government should revive the distribution pipelines especially in the North and also revive the use rail tankers.  Efficiency drives in Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Maritime Authority must be undertaken to save cost of operations and therefore remit more to the treasury.

All monies belonging to Federal, State and Local government from collection etc. must be paid into official accounts of the Federal Government or relevant respective Government within 48 hours of collection: the Federal Government itself must pay its debts also when due within 48 hours. Delays would not to be countenanced.

A Banking Ombudsman to be established to check bank sharp practices to clients: strict guidelines of what banks may do to be established, not the rubbish that the so called Financial Services Commission (FSC) – which was a political bulldog for charging PDP opponents.

Nigeria should do what is says: if election petitions are to be finished by a certain date, let it be so: so that incumbents are sworn in without fear of recall.

How can the Chief of the Air Staff allegedly appropriate for his personal use N550 million monthly for nearly two years without the connivance of almost all the officers in the Airforce and the Ministry of Defence? Were all the other top Airforce officials unaware? If they were and said nothing then they were complicit either through active encouragement to look elsewhere or vicariously complicit and negligent to the uniform and rank they hold. Maybe they benefitted directly too?

Has such an extensive audit equally been done for the other services i.e. the Army, the Navy, the Police and the Customs and Immigration Services too? What level of rot are we expecting to unravel there? Are we to say that the above mentioned service chiefs did not know of such practices or if they did was their silence an indication of what they equally were doing or would do if given the opportunity? We certainly do not have a proper and accountable Military in Nigeria. Were officials of the Ministry of Defence, the Permanent Secretary, the Accounts Director and the Auditors all unaware? And they signed off on what apparently were legitimate papers but did not follow up on whether what they signed off was actually done and done properly.

Ministry of Labour had many departments including a register of unemployed i.e. an unemployment register. Where are these registers? What is the basis of the 70% unemployment rate in the country?

Co-operatives existed in all facets all over the country – self run co-operatives for formers, carpenters, masons, market women and in every work of life. A little encouragement will awaken and strengthen these entities which are efficient message carriers with effectiveness.

The Civil Service is not a place where lazy people find a home. It is a place for hard work; a place to help people, not stifle and frustrate them.

How helpful is the Civil Service to industry, to business, commerce, agriculture, transport, communications, Labour, productivity and growth?

But none of this is possible without a clear vision and political will to revamp the Civil Service.

Dr. Patrick Cole, OFR, a former ambassador, wrote from Lagos.