Afe Babalola flays rising corruption, indolence in civil service

Founder of the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), has flayed the rising cases of corruption and indolence in the country’s civil service. He described the trend as ‘alarming and dangerous’.

Aare Babalola spoke at the opening of a two-day capacity training for officers on special cadres in the Ekiti State Ministry of Capacity Development and Training. The training was themed ‘Public Policy and Administration’.

Babalola called for improved remuneration for government workers to discourage the trend.

He said: “Corruption has eaten deep into Nigeria’s civil service. The civil service of today is riddled with corruption, indolence and eye-service. I am a victim myself, and some of my key staff can testify to this.

“It is so bad that if you write ordinary letter to the minister, you have to do ‘follow-ups’, and I think you understand what I mean by that, without which the letter will not get to its destination, talk more of allowing action on it.

“Also, if you want anything from the ministry, you have to ‘do something’, for action to be taken.”

The legal luminary also noted that the civil service in the old western region was formidable, ‘but the current civil servants in many parts of the country, who should be the eyes and ears of the government’, have usurped power.

“In the old western region, the civil servants were feared and respected, but later when they realised the enormous power they wielded, they virtually usurped power from the government,” he said.

Babalola added that sufficient payment of remuneration was expedient in the civil service, to bypass the parlous state of the country’s economy.

“Special attention must be paid to the salaries and emoluments of civil servants, having regard to the parlous state of the country’s economy.

“As things are today, the monthly take-home of an average civil servant can’t take him to the next bus stop. To make them productive, civil servants must be properly remunerated,” he said.

Commissioner for Capacity Development and Training Prof .Patrick Tedela hailed the ABUAD for partnering the ministry to organise the training.

The commissioner, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Olaleye Olawale, said the training is to develop officers in the ministry and rightly position them to effective service delivery.

He added that the government is committed to providing continuous training and development opportunities for public officers.