Recent reports reaching TheLink News indicate a meeting between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the leadership of the Federal Civil Service yesterday at the State House, Abuja. Where he firmly expressed his dissatisfaction with the non-implementation of the administration’s well-intended programmes.
The President described it as preposterous that timelines for approved policies have deliberately been kept in abeyance by civil servants. The Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), Accountant-General of the Federation, Auditor-General of the Federation, and federal permanent secretaries were admonished for the level of inaction on the said policies–ordering the leadership of the service to double up their efforts. He also said the proper thing for civil servants to do whenever they have reservations about any policy, programme or initiative is to offer suggestions. Armed with facts and figures, President Tinubu queried why the civil service was “abysmally slow in carrying out his people-oriented programmes.”
He listed some of the programmes being dragged down by the civil service as: the N35,000 wage award to workers and the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Initiative (Pi-CNG). He faulted the civil service attitude to the reform package designed to create jobs and boost the economy. The President said the reforms have not been implemented by the civil service. A statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, said the President tasked the top civil servants to rededicate themselves to their duties and work towards improving the lives of Nigerians by acting with dispatch on matters that border on citizens’ welfare.
The statement said President Tinubu warned that the ineffectiveness and unnecessary bureaucracy that delay interventions in the economy and with programmes targeting vulnerable citizens would not be tolerated. He directed that a monthly briefing by the Head of Service and submission of key performance indicator (KPI) reports should be made to his office for review, and that quarterly interactive meetings between the President and the Body of Permanent Secretaries will now be scheduled. President Tinubu asked public servants to always think and work with a generational understanding of their role in shaping national history, knowing that they serve as the engine room of the government and that their actions will affect more than 200 million people at home and abroad. The President added: “Let us make our children’s dreams come true. Why are we slowing that down? It is not just shameful. It is unacceptable. We pledged to bring our people out of poverty. You should not increase their vulnerability. Help Nigerians to get out of these problems; do not compound the tough situation with unacceptable delays.”
