Today, I desire to deal with the allurement to public office and the reason for dare-devilry in political contest.
I belong squarely to the second generation of Nigerians that witnessed Amalgamation of Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914. I was born on April 1, 1944. I was privileged to have seen whites work Nigeria into a productive entity for their benefit. The overriding zest of public servants then was to assure home, United Kingdom (UK), of resources for industrialization
The British Government provided them rules and laws for fulfilling their mandate. The rules and laws made service for the colonial government and the people of UK the main purpose of governance. All public servants were primed for that purpose only. Their glory laid in honour from their country and the good name the actors and their family would earn back home. Most of the public servants came with their small personal assets into prepared environments and left them when their service circuit closed. There was no obvious ambition to own property or other possessions. The whites made genuine friendship without hurting the objectives of their nation. That was how they permanently put the North into irredeemable advantage.
Yoruba and Ndigbo were key technocrats of the colonial period along with loyal and nationalist minorities. I remember names like Simeon Adebo, Eyo Ita, Clement Isong, Jerome Udoji, Pius Okigbo, Allison Ayida and Philip Asiodu. The point being made here is that none of these eminent technocrats set sights on money before luscious career. They applied the rules and the law until the military came with their self-destruct private/group interest short-termist policies and programmes that eroded the foundations of the technocracy and warped it completely out of relevance to our national goals of having a public service that should address national integration objectives and national goals of betterment for everyone in the Nigeria. The nation had had no opportunity to even conceive a national goal when the army struck with their divisive myopia that addressed position and power without pre-eminent loyalty to a country. There was the difference between British citizens in service of UK and public servants of Nigeria by 1966.
From then on, it became a game of musical chairs among the military top brass who had Nigeria in their claws with no clear idea what to do with her. They originated nothing of a vision. Ideas were rushed at them by profiteers from all over the world who cared nothing for the country save what could be gleaned from it, even without giving anything in return. The public servant transmogrified into private goldmines for those who occupied higher echelons of the service ladder. They made money on their power as the army made power both desirable and expensive to get. Loyalty shifted from state to power holders of all classes. The military class became instant inheritors of national resources from farm lands to oil wells. Retired military officers had choice farmlands as pastime activity centres. Oil wells were dispensed to their type regardless of capacity to operate such wells. A super rich group took form among the military and they have today matured into huge foundation operators with zillions of naira available for charities to massage their aching consciences.
Documents in the files of public service of Nigeria were regarded as sacred legacy of all colonial administrations. Rules for their preservation as secret with coded access and rank attached at each level were painstakingly enforced and guarded. Files were marked ‘Secret’, ‘Top Secret’, ‘Priority’, ‘Restricted’ in accordance with file vulnerability to national interest of Britain. They were observed in total allegiance to the objectives of public service then.
Since the military came to destroy the public service, especially with the disregard shown for technocracy during General Murtala Mohammed’s regime, our public service system assumed the nature of gold mine for all those who lasted up to that regime. I can presume that Liman Ciroma was one of the last of the technocrats of the colonial era to leave without hurting his integrity under pressure from military fortune seekers.
The public service is now completely rotten at all levels. Files are disrespected as chattels for private ends. They could be hidden or destroyed at will where patronage is established by an interloper, and bribe can be offered to willing takers. It would matter nothing to a so-called public servant to destroy a file by burning or burying it in an archival storage just to keep it out of reach of loyalists of those who failed to pay bribe money for progress on such files. Even top level public servants are now frequently dictating terms for processing documents contained in files of governments. Ludicrous and outlandish proposals for sharing fees and remunerations of consultants are proffered ahead of processing.
It is now a take-it or leave-it situation for the consultant. Of course, some of us found this disgusting and lost out. But we gained the right to tell this story as beacon lights for change that must come if public service has to be reborn with its pristine objective of catering for the national interest.
At this time, Nigeria has been parcelled out as gold mines to employees of the public service. A serious re-orientation will be required to change this. National ethos must first be constructed and sold to the generation coming up. If bought, change may come in the next generation of public servants.
