FG Needs The Best Civil Servants To Solve Nigeria’s Problems – Ezekwesili

Former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili has called for an
overhaul of the Nigerian civil service, noting that only those with
character, capacity and competence will be able to work with the
vision to reform the country.
Ezekwesili said this at this year’s Lagos Public Service Day with the
theme The role of public service in women empowerment,
innovation and accessible service delivery.
She lamented that the civil servants in the country had abandoned
merit and result oriented strategies. “Public servants have ignored
the activities required to achieve result and focused on the smallest
aspect of governance. It is the transactional mind of the country’s
civil service that made the place unattractive to the brightest brains
in the country. Rather it became an environment where people who
are unconcerned about transaction are.
“So if we want to compete with other great nations, we must solve
our problem with the best civil servants we can find. Every public
service in any nation will do well on the bases of the competence,
capacity and character of the people (civil servants) that are
assembled to solve the problem.”
The former minister noted that if the country cannot achieve high
standards in its civil service, it would affect the present
administration’s pursuit. “If the public service had gone back to
what it was originally intended to be, more than 100 million
Nigerians will not be poor at the moment. For instance, China has
been able to lift about 600, 000 people out of poverty because they
had a better civil service.
“The vision of the political leader requires an organised system of
execution that is powered by the civil servants in order to achieve
result. So the public service is that level of governance powered by
the technical experts assured with security premium that is
consistent with the longevity of nation building.
“If the country will make it, it would depend on the quality of human
beings that will dislodge the mentality of transactional civil service
that was put upon us by the virtue our addiction to oil as the basis
for economic development,” Ezekwesili, said.
More than 500 civil servants who have served in the state public
service for over 30 years were honoured at the event.