Civil Servants Are Corrupt And Lazy, Says President Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigeria’s civil service has a
reputation for inefficiency, low productivity and corruption.




Buhari, who was represented by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi
Osinbajo, stated this on Monday in Abuja at the inauguration of capacity
building programmes, tagged “Structured Mandatory Assessment-based
Training Programme and Leadership Enhancement and Development
Programme”, for public servants.




The President said that Nigeria’s civil service was declining due to
its inability to articulate a vision and develop the required capacity
to implement such vision.




Buhari said, “Many, who mourn the decline of the civil service today
from its days as ‘primus inter pares’ in the Commonwealth to one which
has earned a reputation for inefficiency, low productivity, corruption
and insensitivity to the needs of the public, fall into the error of
thinking that the problem is a poverty of ideas and capacity on the part
of the civil service; whereas, it is the inability to clearly
articulate a vision, ensure that the service develops the required
capacity to articulate and implement the various components of the
vision.




“The citizen, regardless of station in life, must be respected by the governing authorities and treated with dignity.




“Flowing from these is the imperative that our society must be
governed by the rule of law, administered by a trustworthy, fearless,
impartial and efficient judiciary”.




He described the federal civil servants as the foot soldiers in
Nigeria’s march to a great destiny, saying he believed the federal civil
service would not fail Nigerians.




“An army cannot afford indiscipline, inefficiency or lack of focus,
especially because the hopes and aspirations of a whole society rest on
your shoulders,” the President said to the civil servants.




Buhari said the civil servants must see themselves as servants and
facilitators of commerce and entrepreneurship and that they must design
policies and remove obstacles to doing business in Nigeria.


Buhari said the civil service should provide answers to questions
such as “What are the strategic and financial planning initiatives
important in a strong private sector led, free market economy but with a
robust social protection system for the poor majority?




“What are the crucial communications to make to the people in a
season requiring sacrifice and perseverance on account of falling
revenues or for that matter communicate the position that our
anti-corruption, zero tolerance stand, is not merely a moral or ethical
stand but a developmental construct that recognises that corruption if
not apprehended will destroy all institutions, the economy and
eventually our society?”


Earlier, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Danladi
Kifasi, said the objective of the programmes was to address capacity
and leadership challenges in the service.




He noted that the programmes were funded from the training budgets of the ministries, departments and agencies.




He said Buhari, in the absence of ministers, had helped to restore
the confidence of the civil service by depending on it for support in
governing the country.




He said the service would support the incumbent administration in its bid to bring about positive change in the country.




Kifasi identified effective leadership as one of the challenges facing the civil service.




He stated, “The Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme is
one of the elements of the new Leadership Development Framework for the
Federal Civil Service.




“ LEAD-P will help to identify potential leaders at the various
levels in the service, nurture developing leaders and enhance the
capacity and capability of existing leaders.”




“Our decision to restrict foreign training and promote home-grown
capacity development is what has made SMAT-P and LEAD-P possible.”




“The programmes are funded primarily from the training budgets of the
Ministries, Departments and Agencies and delivered mainly by Nigerian
Management Development Institutes.




“This means that resources that could have been lost to foreign
training institutions have been used to develop and strengthen Nigerian
training institutions.’’