I have always canvassed that not all Civil Servants are evil and unreliable. This was why I openly wrote about the demerits of sacking all directors that have served eight (8) years and above. Optimal performance of the Civil Service as an institution depends much on institutional knowledge, beyond training to reinvent itself.
I recommended a different approach to be adopted to sieve out those who were not fit for purpose in modern civil service functions. I have never believed that external consultants alone have answers to our local or peculiar problems.
Even in Civil Service, no two States are exactly the same, hence relying on external consultants can never provide solutions to our internal issues. There are inherent peculiarities between one State and another.
On assumption of office in 2015, guided by the understanding that a good knowledge of the local operating environment would be key to our success, we asked questions in our search for effective response to the level of rot in the Civil Service of that era.
We were able to identify a few retired civil servants that were meritoriously appointed to help evaluate the major challenges of the Service at that time, some of which have continued even till date .
We identified Mr. I.O Izima, who came highly recommended. He headed the Committee on Restoration of Study Leave among workers in Abia State . The Committee served basically to identify those civil servants that circumvented the law by falsifying their age and date of employment because of years spent for additional degree as civil servants.
These men did fantastic jobs that helped us to identify those that should have retired but stayed back by compromising the system. There was also another Committee headed by Sir Ichita.
I still commend them for their job as there was no funding before and even after they churned in their reports. It is indeed gratifying to note that the present administration has also identified same Mr. Izima to join the team for verification of civil servants. This is commendable especially with a shift in the initial stand of avoiding anything or anybody that existed before May 29, 2023.
I am very convinced that Mr. Izima will do more as I can vouch for his sincerity and overall integrity that he does NOT compromise. Thanks to Mr. Governor for not relying solely on external consultants to solve our local problems. Local knowledge is key in this instance.
Another engagement which is worthy of commendation is that of Dame Charity Ukonu. On this particular engagement, Mr. Governor has also demonstrated sincere disposition towards identifying the challenges of our pensions management system and the vital need for its repositioning.
Dame Charity Ukonu retired from the State Audit Unit, having served in that Unit all through her career from Old Imo State. She suffered greatly and was humiliated for having worked under my supervision.
I recall that in 2015, I did what we call environmental scanning while in the bank and identified her as someone that will assist us in solving the hydra-headed problem of salary management which had become intractable and still remains a huge challenge till date. She also came highly recommended.
She assembled a team that assisted us with the modest achievement of that era, as there were remarkable reductions on falsification of figures in the pay roll of the State and pension figures.
That Salary Management Committee faced all sorts of intimidation, persecution, threats and malicious accusation that even landed my team at EFCC Port Harcourt Zone. That is a story for another day.
When I eventually left government in 2019, Dame Charity Ukonu apparently forgot that dynamics will change as she rejected names of people that had retired from service but handed over to her to effect payment as salary.
It was an aberration in that twist of time but it was late for her to understand. It was not long before she was unceremoniously removed as the head of salary management team.
She was replaced with someone who was indicted by a White Paper from BIR for fraud and had floated for 10 years without any defined role in the Ministry of Finance.
Remarkably, and most unfortunately, all the gains made in sanitizing the data base of Abia pay roll was reversed within days.
For over one year she floated without any office and any defined job function. She ran to who is who in Abia, including political and religious leaders, begging and pleading as she thought she was helping to strengthen the system.
All the people she ran to told her that her problem was because she worked with Obinna Oriaku. Then I had become a leper as anybody associated with Oriaku was sent to the gallows!
She asked what Oriaku did, without a response till date.
Eventually, she was forced to retire to her village in deep regrets for standing for reforms in our salary management apparatus.
She demonstrated passion for her job and was very sincere on what should constitute the real wage and pension of Abia workers and pensioners.
Most of those she ran to for help, explaining that all she did was to help stop the fraud in salary/pensions management, have today become emergency advocates (activists) of good governance. This lady was banished to her village in penury – a good example of disgrace for standing up against a system.
Otti has wiped away my tears as that widow was unjustly punished just because she refused to obey instruction which she knew was bad, thinking she was still working under my supervision.
The foregoing buttresses my conviction that not all civil servants are evil and not all are thieves. We have retirees that are sincere and are willing to see a better Service and, by extension, a better Abia State just like during Imo State days before the creation of new States.
I encourage the government to search further as there are many more retired but highly experienced civil servants ready to assist, instead of these consultants that carry brief cases from Sokoto and Abuja without any capacity to solve our problems that are mostly rooted in syndicated local and complex foundations.
Obinna Oriaku
Ekwedike
