It is customary that a newly formed government comes along with its agenda, policies and programmes. As the most vital machinery of government, it is the responsibility of the civil service to drive the implementation of policies and programmes because a committed civil service is the best vehicle for carrying out and explaining to the people the policies and intentions of the government.
According to Warren Fisher in his report of the British Royal Commission on the civil service in 1929: “Determination of policy is the function of ministers, and once a policy is determined, it is unquestioned and unquestionable business of the civil servant to strive to carry out that policy with precisely the same goodwill, whether he agrees with it or not.”
In other words, the basic roles of the civil service are to assist the government in the formulation of policy by providing the necessary data, implement the decisions (that is, the approved policies) without fear or favour, and ensure that civil servants set out the wider and more enduring considerations against the exigencies of the moment so that the conveniences of today do not become the embarrassment of tomorrow.
Over the last 14 years or thereabouts, I have had the opportunity of studying the Nigerian civil service at close quarters and reflecting on its critical role in national development. It is apt to conclude that the service as presently constituted possesses neither capacity nor readiness to be on the frontline of government service delivery to the public.
It is on record that the performance of the civil service in its policy and technical support to the government and the delivery of service to the public in the period from the colonial era up to the mid-1970s, was of high standard, even by international comparison. The high rating in both effectiveness and efficiency was at both the federal and regional/state levels. From the mid-1970s, however, the performance of the service began to deteriorate fast and this dismal performance has since peaked at a scandalous level. Some of the critical factors responsible for this debilitating state of affairs include the absence of key modern competencies and skilled human capital resources.
For government policies and national development strategies to have any impact, the Nigerian civil service needs to be subjected to significant root and branch reform that is revolutionary in nature as against successive reforms of the past that were no more than addressing the symptoms rather than the cause. The civil service as the leading government bureaucracy that makes conducting private business difficult, needs innovatory and ground-breaking makeover that will lead to a more effective and productive public sector that will support private sector-led economic transformation strategy.
Social justice demands that we at all times make the correlation between superior living standards and quality of life, and the need for a more effective and more productive civil service. A strong civil service is one that is efficient, forward-looking and seeks to excel. Such a service has an organisational culture that is responsible, innovative and service-oriented.
Without a strong and forward-looking civil service, the private sector will be unable to achieve its own potential. A strong civil service is an unconditional prerequisite for a strong academia, a superb educational system and regulatory and structural reforms in different market sectors.
The social justice protests that have and are still taking place intermittently across the country are a golden opportunity to harness the rage, frustration and disappointment of many Nigerians to change the public dialogue and create a new system of social trust and values. It is a chance for the public to demand that the government make the civil service more efficient. It is also a chance for Nigerians to demand that the service cleans its Augean stable and do away with corruption.
