Reforming Public And Civil Service For Robust National Growth

Civil servants and public servants are both individuals who work in the service of the government, but they share some key differences and similarities.

While Civil servants are employees of the government who work in administrative roles, responsible for implementing government policies and programs, typically hired through a competitive selection process and are expected to be politically neutral, Public servants on the other hand are a broader category that includes civil servants but also encompasses individuals who work in various public sectors such as police officers, firefighters, and healthcare workers.

One major challenge they share in common is poor salary and remuneration.

Historically, the word “civil” derived from an old French word “civil”, means “relating to law”, it is directly from the Latin word “civilis”, which means “relating to citizen”, while the word “service” is derived from an old French word “servise”, which means “aids”.

The Nigerian Civil Service has its origin in organizations established by the British in colonial times.

It is worthy to note that various panels have made recommendations for its reformation. This includes the Margan Commission of 1963, the Adebo Commission of 1971, and the Udoji Commission of 1972-74.

Despite all these suggestions, Nigerian government workers still suffer a great deal of impoverishment.

The take-home salaries now keep them stranded on the road as it’s no longer enough to take them home, and this has negatively affected their families.

The bitter truth is that most civil servants earn to survive the immediate and not to save for rainy days as they struggle to meet up with the economic reality even till retirement.

This explains why some retirees have nothing to fall back on and they either fall sick and die or even continue struggling when they are meant to be resting after so many years of meritorious service.

Aside this, workers face other challenges such as poor working conditions, no sick bay or first aid box, poor ventilation, dilapidated rest rooms, poor lightning and obsolete working equipment.

Regrettably, most of them cannot afford quality education for their children as getting affordable health care service is a mirage.

Affording proper meals now seems like a fairy tale, and this affects not just their health but overall productivity.

Before now, government workers were respected in the society and regarded as one of the richest, unfortunately not anymore.

Take, for instance, the Abuja car dealer who berates civil servants in his videos, claiming his luxury cars are not for them as they could not afford it.

In as much as his videos were widely condemned but it should be looked at from the angle of reality and truth.

He may not have presented it rightly, and it is a good thing he has cleared himself on air saying his videos were misinterpreted, but he has driven home the message that civil servants were poorly paid, and something needs to be done urgently.

The popularity the video garnered drew the attention of the government, which led to a press release by the Director General of the National Orientation Agency; Lanre Issa-Onilu, saying the agency was not pleased with it.

It is agreeable to say this is an insult to civil servants; it is also commendable that the federal government frowned at it.

But it should not end there because civil servants are the bedrock for any nation’s development and as such it should be a wakeup call for government to reform the civil service and ensure that they regain their respect in the society.

In addition, this reform should address every issue that concerns workers both during active service and after retirement.

There is no doubt that the civil service generally has its own problems and has been criticized as being an institution where political interference, tribalism, nepotism, and other vices hold sway.

It is therefore important to note that achieving these anticipated reforms requires all hands to be on deck.

As such, civil servants should ensure to have attitudinal change and self- reform, that way, their dignity would be restored and their labour will not be in vain.

By Obumnaeme Ukeje