I have personally decided not to tackle the Nigerian problem by concentrating
on the atrocities of the government alone simply because they did not drop from
above. They emerged, anyhow and anywhichway from among us, therefore I am a
firm believer in the purification of the source and not the output. If you
approach the restoration of a diseased tree from just taking care of the leaves
without getting to the root of the matter, that becomes another wasted
adventure in cosmetology. You can check out if the cosmetics ladies apply
always, really, really results in real beauty (#justsaying, please don’t take
it personal ladies).
Our approach has consistently been cosmetic, a ruler emerges does his
thing, we make noise and ask for change. The change supposedly comes after
another round of politricking and the circle has been going on for some time
now. Aren’t we tired??? Isn’t that being foolish? Is it not shameful that you can’t
expect the average Nigerian, (make your pick at random) to be trusted with responsibility?
Let’s get to the reason for my topic today, government after successive government
has come and gone and the civil service has survived each government and yet
only a few see the need for us to do a complete overhaul of the civil service!!!
For some that may get to read this, I am talking about your parents. I personally
believe that majority of the civil service workforce are lazy people who are
focused on just making a living. Conduct a random survey and you will discover
that this majority are in the employ of the state be it at the federal or state
level solely for the sake of job security. They are not there to make even an
attempt to improve on the status quo and in the process move this nation
forward.
This lazy majority, are lacking in several areas like passion for the
job, creativity et al, their loyalty is only to their stomach and that’s all. This
attitude has greatly limited their ability to do the right thing. The only
thing that has the ability to stir them up is if an attempt is made to affect
their daily bread. Is it possible for the political class to rip off Nigeria
without the connivance of the civil service??? This deficiency of character has
allowed an atmosphere of survival of the sharpest to the detriment of the
nation to be the order of the day. These are the same people that will go to
any length to ensure that their wards enter the university no matter the means,
graduate and seek employment in the civil services. If it were to be a simple
case of like parents, like children from then on it would have been good, but
the children don’t even get half as much education that the parents got. I leave
the rest to your imagination.
Here is the most atrocious part, the longer serving ones forget that one
day, they will retire and come to join the long queue of pensioners. The question is, while you were serving, didn’t
you think you were going to retire someday and see how something could be done
about the pension process? It goes to
prove beyond reasonable doubt that majority of those who go into the civil
service lack vision. When a pensioner falls while on the queue and dies like it
happened recently, we are quick to blame the government and ask the government
to do something about it. Where are the Directors, Permanent Secretaries and
the young graduates in the civil service? Is there no Head of Service that has the
brains and courage to address this issue? Is it that the pension process cannot
be fixed? Oh no, any attempt to sanitize the pension scheme and indeed the
civil service will rock the boat and affect the corrupt feeding opportunity of
some people. And we blame the “Cabal” for the woes of our nation while the
civil service is so seriously running a “Cabalocracy” like my friend Kayode
Olajide postulated and few people are seeing that.
Are we no longer our brother’s keeper??? For how long will we continue to
play the ostrich? The future of Nigeria is in our hands and it starts from me
asking me, what can I do to make Nigeria a better place??? Ask yourselves the
same question, and if any of your family is in the civil service, encourage
such to work for a better future for Nigeria by doing the right thing at all
times. A Servant turns to a Starver when s/he serves self.
Let us stop shooting ourselves in the leg while blaming others…
