Princewill Odidi|11 July 2017
Growing up in 4 corners Ikom some years ago, on our way to school, we watched men from the Ikom ministry of works as they construct gutters, use their machetes to clear grass on the street paths, they even filled pot holes on highways.
Civil servants then were directly involved in executing projects on behalf of the state. This was the Civil Service that the Colonial Masters created and handed down to our leaders post independence.
While at primary school, health workers will visit the school, all the children will be called out, we stand in line for vaccinations from the state ministry of health workers who will personally conduct vaccinations.
On our way back from school, we pass through the treasury department, we watch how retired civil servants stand in line for verification by treasury staff before pensions were paid.
This was the civil service we grew up knowing. A civil service that initiated policies for the state but also performed direct services on behave of the state.
Ministry of works directly employed architects and engineers who designed and built roads and bridges, it was very rare then, to sublet those assignments to contractors.
Now, because the civil service was a partner with government, they even collected taxes and levies directly for the government, the civil service engineered development, helped government make money, and government was so happy to make sure salaries and arrears where readily available at month end.
However, with the introduction of democracy and the politicization of the bureaucracy, everything about government is now handled by contractors and consultants, and the civil servants is now perceived a burden to the state because their jobs have been taken by contractors and consultants.
Contractors today tarr roads and fill potholes, contractor do engineering designs previously designed by ministry engineers, consultants verify workers and pensioners identity, consultants even handle vaccinations if at all it is available, contractors supply stationaries in offices, a job previously done by office messengers, contractors deliver mail on behalf of the ministry, contractors even clean the offices in ministries, jobs previously done by ministry cleaners. Contractors cut grass and clean the gutters, contractors and consultants are taking over the entire civil service, just because some politician need to make some ten percent kick back from signing contracts.
On more technical jobs previously handled by ministry directors, politicians now bring on board special advisers, technical advisers, special assistants and personal assistants. At the end of the day the civil service has been rendered redundant. I recently visited an office in Abuja, some workers were selling recharge cards, chewing groundnuts while waiting to sign out at close of work.
Civil servants are poorly paid today because their wages are shared with consultants and contractors, in most cases, the government makes payment of consultants fees a priority to civil servants salaries. To most young people reading this piece today, this is the Nigeria you know, but this is not how Nigeria has always been.
Now, since consultants and contractors have taken over the traditional roles of the colonial civil service, state governors start feeling they really do not need the civil servants any longer.
They now complain that over seventy percent of income revenue is used to pay salaries and pensions. For most governors, if they have their way, they will eliminate the civil service completely. This also explains why governors are not really interested in increasing salaries, they consider it a drain to development projects.
What most politicians today fail to understand is that when civil servants ran the entire business of government including policy formulation and execution, Nigeria was better, fresh graduates where often hired in ministries, teachers in primary school spent time doing lesson notes, our streets where clean, children in school were vaccinated and healthy.
Has democracy brought development to our people or has it rather set us back?
A problem discovered is half solved. Nigeria has not always been like these, there was a time Nigeria actually worked. Can we retrace our steps and see where we started derailing? Join me in this new train, let's fix our country again. Getting it right in our generation is a task that must be done.
Princewill Odidi is a social Commentator writing from Atlanta.