Appointments, President Buhari And Northern Agenda By TEMITOPE AJAYI

I have joined a lot of conversations ignited by many ethnic champions on social media on the so-called 10 appointments made so far by President Buhari, especially the ones by the Yoruba irredentists, mostly firing from abroad. My take remains that these are civil service positions where seniority often take precedence. I will only complain when political appointments are made and national spread is not taken into consideration. I mean political appointments into the executive leadership of MDAs and Boards. Those listing ADC,CSO, Chief of Protocol to the President, Acting DPR Director, Acting INEC Chairman and Accountant General of the Federation to mean political appointments are nothing but mischief makers and confusionists. These are civil service and public service appointments that are governed by rules, mostly seniority.


Let us face the truth as Southerners, Northerners are more in both public and civil service and funny enough they are more in the leadership cadre of the civil service. Sadly, we may not have Southerner Chief Justice of Nigeria in the next 20 years because the three or four most senior Supreme Court Justices are Northerners. I am not sure we have even had Southerner Chief Justice of the Federation since 1999. The closest may be Justice Belgore from Ilorin, Kwara State. About 7 years ago, it was discovered that there was nobody that can be Permanent Secretary in the Federal Civil Service from Bayelsa State as the most senior civil servant from Bayelsa was an assistant or a deputy Director. Political consideration had to be used to balance it and I think that was how Ambassador Godsday Igali who was former SSG in Bayelsa was brought in and he is now Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power. It was only Bayelsa State that had no Permanent Secretary in the Federal Civil Service then.

This problem will continue and we will continue to be ‘Wailing Wailers’ apology to Femi Adesina as long as we Southerners continue to look down on Civil Service and Public Service jobs. Come to think of it, our people ordinarily do not want to go to the civil service while northerners push their own into it. We look down on Police, Military, Immigration, Prison Service, Civil Defence, DSS, NIA jobs etc. Custom Service is one public service job that is popular among Yorubas that I know we crave to do.

Our people must take interest in civil service and public service jobs not private sector jobs alone. This is the way to solve this seeming lopsidedness in senior level Civil Service jobs. The pay in Civil Service may be low at junior levels compared to what is obtainable in the private sector but at senior levels you begin to enjoy it.

It took some of us at Ikere Development Forum for example to start educating our younger ones to consider Civil Service career at a Youths Forum. I remember I did a proposal to Ekiti State government under former Governor Segun Oni advising the government to start public enlightenment and encourage our people to go into Federal civil service and the security agencies. He invited me for discussion and gave his SA on Youth Affairs to work on the proposal but he was removed from office as the Governor by court few weeks after.
Six years ago NIMASA initiated a Seafarers programme to train 20,000 young Nigerians to take up job opportunities in the maritime sector because most of the jobs are being done by Asians where we complain of no jobs for youths. NIMASA allocated equal number of students to each state. While NIMASA will pay 50% of the cost of the training the state governments will pay 50%. Most of the Northern states filled up their slots and lobbied NIMASA for more space with a promise to pay 100% for their youths. South West states didn’t fill up to 50% of their slots. Ekiti, my state didn’t even have a clue as I was not sure the state filled up to 25% of her slots. What this means is that in the next 10-20 years down the line there will be more Northerners operating in the Maritime sectors than we Southerners that have the waters and the sea at our backyard. Power of foresight by the Northerners you may say. When that time comes we will be wailing and be saying Northern agenda in the Maritime industry.

Some of our people went into civil service late after wasting many years looking for high paying private sector jobs. I have relations who would have been Permanent Secretaries and Directors today but refused to take Civil Service jobs when they had the opportunity and they are living to regret it. It is only when our people can’t get bank, FMCG, Telecom, oil company jobs they now result to Civil Service as last option by which time they have wasted 5 to 10 years in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja looking for blue Chip and Multinational jobs. By the time our people would accept Civil service job out of frustration their northern mates who graduated same time with them from the University or even junior in school would have got 3 promotions. Now, tell me how Northerners won’t be their seniors in Federal Public and Civil Service.

Those accusing Buhari of Northern agenda will still have more reasons to wail in the days ahead. President Buhari is a stickler to rules. He may not bend even if it is not politically correct as long as it is civil service positions that he wants to fill. He may insist the most senior person fill any available vacancy and it does not matter to him whether the person is from Daura or Ikere-Ekiti.

The challenge for us as Southerners is to start serious advocacy and sensitization of our people. Let them go into public and civil service. Let our people join the security agencies so that in the next 20-30 years to come they will be in top echelon among the drivers and sharpers of public policy and we can get our due placements.

I regret to disappoint those who expect me to join the ethnic champions shouting Northern agenda. The way the public and civil service stand today there are more northerners in very senior level than southerners. So, in every 10 core civil service and public service positions it may be ratio of 8-2 and when we are lucky it may be 6-4 in the next 10 years. It is not nepotism as some are alleging the Northerners worked for it. There are more Northerners well trained in public administration and within the system than Southerners just as we have more Southerners in the private sector and the big corporations. It is a matter of choice and deliberate planning. This is the time for Southerners to take civil service and public service jobs very serious. While we are wailing today, let us use our moment as wailers to plan for the future so our children and younger ones can shout eureka tomorrow.

Temitope Ajayi can be reached Via Facbook here

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