Press Releases

Fashola Advocates Merit, Security Of Tenure To Achieve Best Public Service

Jun 22, 2010 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Tuesday advocated a process of personnel recruitment emphasizing merit and security of tenure as the only means of attracting the best for the Public Service of the country.

Governor Fashola, who spoke in Abuja as Guest Speaker at the commemoration of this year's Nigeria Civil Service Day, described these two qualities as most critical in ensuring the best service delivery to the Nigerian populace.

Speaking on the theme, "Strengthening Leadership and Management for Improved Public Service Delivery In Africa", at the Main Auditorium of the ECOWAS Commission, the Governor declared, "The future of our country lies in the hands of the Public Service. We must from today, therefore, begin the process that ensures that only the best of us, who can think for us, act for us and endure for us, get into the Public Service".

Quoting from the Tangier, Morocco Declaration of 1994 at the Pan African Conference of the Ministers of the Civil Service, which asserted that the investment in human resources constituted an essential basis for the development of nations, Governor Fashola further observed, "In my view, this is the crux of the matter. What kind of people, in terms of their quality, education, integrity and ethics have we attracted to the Public Service of our country in the last 50 years?"

"I think the answer to this question and the assessment of the process of engagement and disengagement into the Public Service will take us far if we realize that the Public Service is an institution their requires people to make it function; because when institutions fail or succeed, it is the people that have failed or succeeded", the Governor said.

Pointing at the period between 1966 and 1976 as 'the period of great prosperity' in the country, Governor Fashola, who attributed the nation's achievements during that period to the quality of the Public Servants and the security of their tenure, declared, "The security of tenure of the Public Service employee is not accidental. It is a necessary and self protecting mechanism designed to ensure that the public servant remains a thoroughbred professional who does not lose his independence of thought and rationality of action in the process of advising the political leadership".

"The consummate public servant must be able to advise any political leader with courage and truthfulness in the interest of the public no matter his prejudices about the political party in Government or even the person of the leader of the Government", he said, adding, "This is why his tenure of employment is statutory. That is why our Courts have held, like other Courts in the Commonwealth jurisdiction that unlike in the Private Sector, a contract of employment in the Public Service has a statutory flavor and requires rigorous compliances with process, to bring it to an end".

"I am of the firm view that it is only when we confer the protection in words and indeed, that we can truly attract the very best of our people back to the Public Service", Governor Fashola said pointing out that as long as the process of recruitment of people into the Public Service "to the test of the lowest common denominators, instead of the highest common denominators", so long would the country lack "appropriate security, regular water supply, good public schools or hospitals or, indeed, a prosperous life".

He warned, "If the best of us find work in the private sector more attractive than the public sector, it is a bad omen. We must reverse it to avert doom. We must raise standards for employment into the Public Service in the way that the private sector has done. Indeed logic demands that we do".

Speaking on what he called 'the love-hate relationship' between the public servants and the people, Governor Fashola said this arose from the fact that distinct from the Public Service, there is also a private sector to which everybody not employed in the Public Service belongs adding that every public servant owes his right to be employed to the expectation that the needs of this category of people will be met.

"We exist only for them and not for ourselves and any privileges that our office brings are conferred only for the purpose of ensuring that our employers' needs are met", the Governor said adding that the root of the love-hate relationship also lay in the fact that the people will never be unanimous in their demands and expectations.

Governor Fashola, who attributed the modest achievements of the Lagos State Government to the promotion of competition, repeated training and re-training, a sense of security at work and a process of reward for excellence and appropriate sanction for sloppiness; the recognition of merit over base consideration of ethnicity, said the State Public Service has demonstrated that nothing is impossible "if the people find a new purpose to pursue".

While responding to questions raised by a member of the audience during the public lecture on why corruption and indiscipline is very prevalent in the public service Governor Fashola said corruption is not the problem with the nation but a symptom of a major problem.

Explaining that desperation is a bigger problem which has made it difficult for a solution to be found to issue of corruption nationwide, explaining Governor Fashola tasked governments at all levels to make resources available to mitigate the desperate situations and conditions that tempt people into engaging in corrupt acts.

He proffered that part of the way out of the problem is to provide services that will boost the purchasing power of the average Nigerian, adding that if the amount of the disposable income spent by an average income earner on facilities like power supply is reduced desperate situation would be eliminated.

Governor Fashola also called for the provision of realistic solution to the problem of access to housing stressing that instead of mouthing the absence of housing, houses can be acquired over the period of the career of public servants through mortgage facilities.

He added that the Federal Government can use funds like the Pension Funds which the government at the centre can inject strategic incomes and resources into as a policy to mitigate such desperate conditions.

On claims that the public sector is poorly remunerated when compared to the private sector, Governor Fashola said if the public sector aims at matching the public sector in terms of remuneration, it must be ready to operate on the philosophy of reward and punishment.

He said just as every skill should be adequately rewarded in the public service, the sanctions must also be applied when there is a need for it, adding that people even reserve the right to seek other job options if they feel what they are getting in the public service is not commensurate with their input.

On how the State has successfully mobilized Local Governments to offer desired services to the people, Governor Fashola said the State respects the constitutional provisions and encourages the people to dare and aspire to change things and also put pressure on the Local Government chairmen to put in their best.

He said there are inherent defects in the way Local Government structures operate in Nigeria such that the Constitution has not only removed the control of States deciding the fortunes of the Local Councils but is always applying general rules to them irrespective of the peculiarities that exist in each area.

He reiterated that Local Government as the councils at the grassroots are best suited to provide primary health care services such as prenatal and post natal care to the people with the State only offering supportive services when the capacity is beyond the Local Government Councils.

Governor Fashola also said a lot of disservice is being done to the sustenance of Local Government by officials at the centre who erroneously belief that states should have no opinions about how Local Government should be run since the Federal Government is the senior partner.

In terms of training, Governor Fashola advised Public servants to avail themselves of training offered by learning channels that are available on cable Television that are readily available.

Governor Fashola said regrettably, the nation has not situated the Ministry of Establishment within its right position in terms of its manpower resource capacity and needs.

He informed that the Lagos State Government on its part has situated the State Ministry of Establishment within its right position to overseeing the training of all agencies of the government for any year.

He added that the Ministry proposes training for a particular year by outlining the kind of public service it intends to train and also brings resource persons from different parts of the world to train people such that many people benefit from it.

The public lecture which had full attendance was also witnessed by the Governor of Niger State, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Professor Sheikh Ahmed Abdulla and Monsignor Mathew Kukah among other dignitaries was hosted by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Steven Oronsaye.