Fayose and his late-coming workers

SIR: I am sure Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose didn’t ask them to kneel down. Civil servants can be jittery when something is about to tamper with their pots of soup. Punctuality is the soul of business.

Though I don’t like the ways of the governor, I am with Governor Fayose on this. It is a right step in right direction. Civil servants in Nigeria are one of the most corrupt, arrogant, lazy and backward sets of people. Their attitude to work is not just it at all. To them, it is government work: it can be done anyhow. Most of them come to work late and also leave early. Being covered by their colleagues, some might even be absent for a whole week and their functions neglected. Most of us who have had cause to transact business in public offices can recount our ordeals. To pick up a pen and append a signature to a paper at times becomes a big task for some civil servants.

In principle, civil service is the engine room of policy as well as project formulation and implementation for any government. It forms the nucleus of government bureaucracy and ensures continuity in governance. In essence, no government will perform at optimum level with civil servants that are lackadaisical to work

This same set of people will be the first to cry blue murder anytime a government policy didn’t favour them or salaries are delayed. My question is: are they even working for their pay? The answer is NO in most instances. It is even daring if those within the Government House can also be coming to work late. When President Muhammadu Buhari was about to resume work in the Villa, I read in the media how workers in the Villa quickly resumed work as early as 8.am against their normal late-coming attitude in anticipation of a no-nonsense man that was about to take charge.

In principle, civil service is the engine room of policy as well as project formulation and implementation for any government. It forms the nucleus of government bureaucracy and ensures continuity in governance. In essence, no government will perform at optimum level with civil servants that are lackadaisical to work. So, any leader that wants to achieve any meaningful thing must first of all re-organise his/her civil service and change its orientation and productivity.

In most cases, the services are over-bloated. Ghost workers’ issues are also frequent as the same civil servants plant them there as means to defraud the government. With all the billions being expended on the payment of salaries, allowances, training and capacity building, government at all levels must devise mechanisms to making sure these funds are not being wasted.

I salute the courage of Governor Fayose in taking this action.

• Abdulateef Abiodun,
Lagos.