Of indigenous populations and the threat of invasive species: The RGGN rationale (2)

Concluding part of text of the address by Dr. Goke Adegoroye on the occasion of the public presentation of his twin-volume book – Restoring Good Governance in Nigeria at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja, Thursday, 25 June, 2015

LIKE in the biological world, some transferees are beneficial to the system while others are destructive. It is the inability of the civil service system to screen and properly place (introduce) transferees in accordance with laid down guidelines that has now created the situation where, in the last two decades, the civil service system has had to contend with, not just the large number of transferees but many within the group whose actions and influence have turned out to be a carbon copy of what the invasive species do in the biological world.

Accordingly, many of these transferees and injections have ended up out-competing the native populations of civil servants (who started their career in the mainstream civil service) in getting appointed, not just as directors but as permanent secretary and even head of the civil service. Today, the ability of the native populations of civil servants to rise to the pinnacle of their career has been virtually wiped out.

As if to make matters worse, because these species were not introduced at the lower levels where they could have been put through the proper ethics, ethos and values of the civil service, but at the directorate or permanent secretary levels, where they are calling the shots, they have succeeded in deploying their own strains of practices, procedures and behaviours in carrying out their responsibilities. These strange practices have now constituted a major cancer to the system. Look around and check through the records, the most embarrassing cases of fraud, corruption and ineptitude that the civil service system has witnessed in recent years have been perpetrated largely by transferees, who were introduced into the mainstream civil service at the directorate level or higher.

To solve the problem we must take a critical look at the root causes:
The 1975 purge, involving about 10,000 civil servants, literally decapitated the service, destroyed the succession and led to the emergence of the ‘make hay while the sun shines’ syndrome”.

Then came Decree 43 of 1988, whose wrong application opened the floodgate for the service to be turned to, according former SGF Baba Gana Kingibe “an all-comers’ affair” but in my own words a dumping ground.

In both cases, the victims were those who started their career in the mainstream civil service. On the other hand, the beneficiaries of the two acts have been the “all comers”, among which are loafers, rejects of other institutions, hangers-on of political appointees and co-travelers like me from the academia looking for more challenging career opportunities. While the beneficiaries (albeit refugees) are smiling and shining in their new found opportunities, the victims have become frustrated and disillusioned.

If the purge of 1975 was what contributed to the “make hay while the sun shines” syndrome, the warped application of provisions of the abrogated Decree 43 of 1988 has not only blocked the career mainstream civil servants from getting to the “hay” but has occluded their horizon from the “sunshine” of the civil service!
This is what I saw in 2005 when I wrote that the challenge before the BPSR was to fish out “what it is in the mainstream civil service that kills initiatives and frustrates talents; to enable initiatives to blossom and talents to flourish, so that the service can truly stand out to work for the people”.

Communicating Reforms
And we have, ever since, been carrying out reforms. Unfortunately, not only has public confidence in the bureaucracy continued to wane, increasing evidence now indicates that the civil service as a system may have lost confidence in itself. This calls for a new approach to whatever strategies that are currently being employed to drive and communicate public service reforms, if we are to restore good governance.

Communicating public service reform does have its own challenges. First, the two groups that are the main targets of the reforms (political office holders and indeed top civil servants) cannot make out the time to read materials outside those deposited on their tables. Second, there is the perception, that drivers of reforms often wear the pseudo-academic arrogance by mouthing “best practice” jargons and buzz words to look down on their colleagues. Third, which is very unfortunate, some outspoken drivers of reform are known perpetrators of the unethical and corrupt actions that have brought the Nigerian civil service system to its current state. The three challenges all tend to provoke resentment against reformers.

As a retired federal Permanent Secretary and an advocate of integrity in public service, I have used the platform of GSDI (Governance and Sustainable Development Initiatives) Limited, my management consulting and advocacy think-tank on public sector whose mission is “to bring innovative and practical approaches in the promotion of good governance to the door steps of Government in pursuit of sustainable development” to carry out a series of analytical studies, which have inspired the two volumes of Restoring Good Governance in Nigeria, namely, The Civil Service Pathway and Leadership & Political Will, as my contribution towards solving the obvious challenges in the service, as it stands.

Toward this end, I have deliberately adopted the KISS (keep it simple and straightforward) principle, to target the two self-reinforcing groups, the civil servants and the political office holders, and draw their attention to the fact that by just doing the basic things right, in accordance with the ethics, ethos, rules and regulations of the service, a lot can be achieved, to lift the civil service to a level where the adoption/adaptation of the latest best practice models that are improving performance in the developed nations would no more prove a difficult task within the Nigerian system.

Restoring Good Governance in Nigeria is a clear departure from what exist in terms of documenting and communicating public service issues.
The manuscript for this book was ready by December 2014. Its publication was intentionally put on hold because I did not want to risk any part of it being introduced into the muddy waters of electioneering campaign. The issue at stake is the state of the bureaucracy; and while the examples drawn in the manuscript may have found direct inference in the current holders of bureaucratic positions, those examples remain what they are: merely examples in the long list of those responsible for bringing the civil service to its current state.

Imperative of Change in the Bureaucracy
Events in the first quarter of 2015 have shown very clearly that it is much easier to achieve political change than bureaucratic change. The emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari, is nothing short of a nation which, has dramatically chosen to “allow the will of the people to prevail”. On the other hand, the bureaucracy is still in the doldrums in terms of its being transformed into the effective machinery for running Government affairs. Yet, unless and until there is a matching change in the bureaucracy the just achieved political change will not achieve meaningful result in governance.

The challenges posed by the civil service and the political class for governance are numerous:
i) There is the challenge of how to make our elected leaders to respect the professionalism underpinning of the civil service, when making appointment into bureaucratic leadership positions;
ii) There is the challenge to government of trying to manage a civil service system that, while enjoying the perquisites of the presidential system that governs its establishment, is also desperately holding on to the ‘immunity’ offered by a parliamentary system under which it no more operates;
iii) There is also the challenge of how to cope with an over-bearing Legislature, which sees their ‘over-sight’ responsibilities mainly within the prism of official extortion of MDA appropriations; and lastly,
iv) There is the challenge of managing the excesses of political heads who use their tenure as Ministers as a platform to amass wealth.

The Imperative of Leadership Integrity at All Levels
To correct all of these, leadership is crucial. But two good, honest and incorruptible political leaders at the top (in the persons of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo) cannot alone deliver good governance. Leadership integrity at all levels is the answer.

The popular adage that the ‘fish begins to rot from the head’ fails to state how to reconstitute the quality of a fish that has commenced to rot. The way out, therefore, is to continue the search for wholesome fish in leadership issues. In other words, if we can vouch for the integrity of the head of every ‘fish’ in the key sectors of the Nigerian public service, in no time we would be assured of a wholesome public service system.

An early life induction into what eventually led me to earn a Ph.D in eco-physiology, was an experiment in the primary school, where we were taught that prolonged occlusion of sunshine makes plants to become etiolated and to wither and die; but that if etiolated plants are returned quickly to sunshine they soon regain life and by inference their greenness, begin to blossom and bloom. Accordingly, Mr Chairman, and our Special Guest of Honour, if we are truly desirous of reviving the civil service, the first step is to remove the ‘whatever’ and ‘whosoever’ are occluding the sunshine of the indigenous populations of the federal civil service.

It is my hope that the message contained in the twin-volume book we are presenting to the public today will resonate with all of us, to enable the civil service lead the way as President Muhammadu Buhari’s personal integrity, Spartan life-style and resilience now provide the leadership-by-example launch-pad for our country’s national rebirth.

Acknowledgements
If I had not been appointed to head the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) as its pioneer director general in 2004 but made a permanent secretary, as had been envisaged, and if I had been offered appointment immediately after I retired from the civil service, I would not have been in a position to write this book. Therefore, I owe a huge debt of gratitude, first, to Mahmud Yayale Ahmed who, as head of the civil service of the federation, recommended me to the position; second, to President Olusegun Obasanjo for giving me the BPSR appointment; and ultimately, to Almighty God for charting the course of my life.
I thank H.E. Mallam Nasir Ahmad el Rufai, my ‘supervisor’ at the BPSR and Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, both of who have continued to support me even out of office; I thank Dr. Bukar Usman and Chief A.O. Okafor for their continued mentorship and advice and for placing at my disposal the benefit of their institutional memory of the service.

Chief Philip Asiodu, by writing the Foreword to the book, has bestowed on me the greatest honour that any civil servant can wish to have. I am grateful to him. I am also grateful to my friend, indeed my Aburo, Martins Oloja – Editor of The Guardian, who without prompting saw the need for an Afterword and chose to write it.

To my friends and colleague retired federal permanent secretaries, Dr. Tukur Bello Ingawa, Ambassador Joe Keshi and the most fastidious of them all who will never let me rest, Japh CT Nwosu, I say a big thank you for your support.

Devine providence has made it possible for one man to be here today; I mean the one man who as advisor was at the center of the reforms, especially the successful implementation of the pioneer Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) in Nigeria, which we did at the BPSR in 2007, Mr Segun Peters! Thank you for coming.

Most of all, I thank the two most important people in my life: Adesewa Iyamide my 4-year old daughter who cannot understand why my own homework never finishes, to enable me play with her as much as she would wish, and my wife Maria Gudelia, who not only had to cope with my habit of always sneaking in and out of bed in the middle of the night whenever an idea propped up in my mind but was always encouraging and supporting me; I cannot thank you enough Mi Amor; Muchisimas gracias Mi cielo.

There is someone that I have deliberately left for mention last, he is my father in the public service; He gave me the first appointment that set me on the trajectory that has continued to manifest till today and has always been there to mentor me, like he did many others; He had a distinguished civil service career; started as a Secretary- Typist and rose through the ranks to retire as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, a post which during his tenure was in the mold of the Prime Minister. He turned 80 earlier this year and God is still keeping him strong. Please help me to rise and thank the former SGF, Alhaji (Dr) Gidado Idris !

Your Excellency, Mr Vice-President, Your Excellency Governor of Kaduna State, and other Governors here present distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen Welcome to the Public Presentation of Restoring Good Governance in Nigeria, and Thank you all for coming.

• Adegoroye, Ph.D, OON, Abuja Nigeria,
• CONCLUDED