Chief Clarence Olafemi is a former Speaker, Kogi State House of Assembly and one time Acting Governor of the state. At a media parley in Lokoja, Olafemi opens up on the causes of the over bloated civil service in the state and faults the methodology adopted in checking the trend. He however lauds the Yahaya Bello administration’s courage and effort at righting the wrong that characterised the staff screening exercise. OYIBO SALIHU reports.
Your comment on controversial staff screening exercise
No doubt, there are problems associated with the staff screening in the state, but it did not start in January 27 , 2016 when Alhaji Yahaya Bello took over the mantle of leadership as governor of the state.
These problems did not start with the immediate past governor, Captain Idris Wada, neither did it start with former governor of the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris.
It all started from the day when Kogi state was created from Benue and Kwara state in the month of August 1991.
At that time, people were loosely directed to go back to their state and people moved from Benue and Kwara to form the new civil service in Kogi state without proper documentation. People had to go back and started perfecting their documents through forgery to justify the grade they claimed to belong.
There was no database and these problems started from the merger of Benue and Kwara civil service.
The system was highly polluted, criminal things were done as people who were not even civil servants came with claims that they were in the service.
Some claimed level 12 , but no evidence and there was no transfer of files from both states to authenticate genuine staff. Some people even conjoined certificates, conjoined promotion, degree certificates were being used by some people who never went to the four walls of university.
They did all of these without bearing in mind that a day of reckoning may come our way.
This uncivilized behaviour led to over bloated civil service in the state and there was no administration that did not notice this problem. I was in one government for eight years, we noticed it, which gave rise to Sally Tibot screening exercise during the tenure of Alhaji Ibrahim Idris.
The concept of the screening was to clear all these mess , but Sally Tibot was behaving like emperor and the House of Assembly then passed a bill that she must leave the state within 24 hours, little did we know that the dead body we claimed to have buried, the legs are still outside.
Also during the tenure of the immediate past administration of Captain Idris Wada, another screening committee was inaugurated, headed by Mrs Deborah Ogunmola , a Permanent Secretary as at that time.
The committee did a fantastic job and submitted their report to the governor, but no executive courage to implement the recommendations of the committee.
All of these culminated together to the extent that when Governor Bello took over, he needed to spend over 80 percent of the monthly allocation in servicing less than 10 percent population of the state who are civil servants.
Civil servants taking multiple salaries
I learnt that due to the porous nature of the state civil service, one person takes the salaries of fifteen people. Though there was no evidence, but I have to believe because of my personal experience. As the Chief Executive of Kogi State House of Assembly, i saw on paper over 3000 staff attached to the assembly, but physically, I never saw 200 staff per day till I left the Assembly.
The question is, where are the staff and who takes their salaries every month? This is a clear evidence that if all these are to be thoroughly investigated, many people in Kogi state will certainly be arrested and jailed for criminal offences.
Over bloated civil service
Also , on the issue of over bloated civil service, there was embargo on employment during the Ibrahim Idris administration , but salaries and wages kept on increasing every month.
It is expected that some staff who died or retired will reduce the wage bill , but in Kogi it was a different kettle of fish. Alhaji Ibrahim Idris did not feel the impact then because the economy and allocations to the state was better.
During Captain Wada administration , it became extremely difficult to pay salaries unless the government went out to borrow and augment the federal allocation before salaries could be paid. This development however is not the design of the civil service.
Another area where the state suffered so much was pension board. Even those that are dead, their names still reflect in the pension pay roll and such payment most often than not, ends up in the pockets of individuals.
It was evidently clear that when a staff who was on level 15 retired, some disgruntled elements in the service used the opportunity to employed two people of level 7 and 8 as replacement without an official approval from the appropriate authority even when there was embargo on employment.
These elements also forget that the level 7 and 8 staff they illegally employed will get promotions with time. These are some of the fraud we discovered in 2003, 2004 up till 2016 . This present governor couldn’t have been responsible for all of these.
The ongoing staff verification
Now, the concept of the current staff screening exercise is very good, but the methodology was bad. For instance , the first time the exercise commenced, I sent a text message to the governor that there is going to be too much complaints at the end of the day, he told me that nobody will be punished unjustly, but along the line the handlers of the exercise did not put human face in what they do.
There was a particular boy I helped to secure job in the local government
over twelve years ago . He was employed with trade test certificate as an artisan on level 5 and within this twelve years he was promoted to level 7, but to my dismay, during the screening, this boy was sent packing based on the claim of the committee that his grade is more than his certificate which of course was ridiculous because the boy did not start with level 7 , his entry grade was level 5.
This is just one out of many unwarranted and heavy mistakes the committee had committed.
The problems that arose after the release of the final list of the exercise emanated from the way the screening was carried out, not because of the screening objectives.
Issue of un-cleared civil servants
I think the outcry that follows the final list of the exercise necessitated another committee set up by the governor to create enabling environment for the genuine staff whose names were not on the cleared list to seek redress.
Honestly, the seat of governor is not an easy seat, it involves a lot of challenges and there are some decisions you just have to take as a governor, no matter the hue and cry.
The present appeal committee, if you examined it well , comprises of some people who are not from the state. The governor again had demonstrated his good intension to correct the errors committed by the former committee, but the governor is not the one to do the job, especially now that some people who partook in the earlier committee, are still part of the new committee.
We just hope that they will not override the fairness and equity required in the screening exercise, and when that happened, it will now be left for the governor to use executive fiat to solve the problem and that is where the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of King Solomon will come to play. Bye and large, we should pray vehemently for Governor Bello to succeed this time around because I cannot support any move to jettison the exercise.
We are not unaware that some people are also working tirelessly to rubbish the exercise because of their selfish interest. We also should not be too sentimental about the people that are suffering because of this exercise. People should also bear in mind that in a war, those that suffer most are not always the ones that cause the war. Therefore, it is important that we support the present administration to succeed in this onerous task.
If the governor succeeds and saves N500 million monthly after the screening for instance, he will be able to provide the needed infrastructure facilities for the people, instead of the money to enter few individual hands.
It is an undisputed fact that Kogi state carried this problem in the civil service for over twenty years before God brought somebody who is ready to right the wrong of the past, and civil service being the engine and nucleus of the government, there is need to overhaul the system for effective service delivery and that is exactly what Governor Bello is out to do in the interest of the state.
Governor Bello’s face-off with some APC members
The way out is that we still have elders in the party like me who can mediate and broker peace between all the warring factions in Kogi APC. Senator Dino Melaye is my man, I supported him to become senator, and Alhaji Yahaya Bello is my governor whom I supported the day the party declared him as a replacement for late Prince Abubakar Audu. My sympathy for Governor Bello was because I have sat on that seat before and I knew the task involved.
Actually, there was initial error that is purely human, and rather than seeking an amicable ways to solve it, we resorted to fighting ourselves openly which of course is not healthy for the party. I want to say that people should know that the circumstances that brought Bello is only God that can explain it.
Secondly, APC in Kogi state started from nowhere and mustered courage to confront and usurp power from the ruling party (PDP). It will certainly be unheard of, if we cannot manage our victory. In my secret discussion with the governor, I have given him the solution to the problem in the party.
I am capable of bringing peace to APC in Kogi state , but both Governor Bello, Senator Dino and other aggrieved ones must agree to peace , then I will be able to use my elderly experience to solve the problem once and for all because I am like a father to all of them.