Nigeria Content Online

Senior federal workers in Abuja are screaming and kicking against a planned competence test, which they say is a ploy to sack staff before paying the new salary to civil servants.

After a meeting, last Thursday, at the auditorium of the federal ministry of justice, the civil servants, most of whom are on upper grade level 14 to 16, resolved to ignore any further test and also challenge in court the demand by the office of the Head of Service (HOS) of the federation to conduct examinations for them.

The civil servants accused Stephen Orosanye, the head of service, of insincerity, adding that Mr Oronsaye is orchestrating the idea of a test as a ploy to sack workers.

“The federal government does not want to pay the new salary to all civil servants. They are now looking for a way to lay off workers, hiding under the guise of examination or tests,” said an assistant director in the federal ministry of education who, for fear of victimization, prefers to be anonymous.

Competency Assessment Test

In a public statement titled ‘Notice of re-sit of the post training competency assessment test for federal civil servants on GL 14 – 16,’ Mr. Orosanye stated that senior civil servants who “did not make the 40% cut-off mark” for an earlier test held in May should come for a re-sit examination on August 9.

But the civil servants said they will not only disregard the directive, they would also go to court to challenge it. They claim that Mr. Orosanye has a hidden agenda in insisting on them writing the examination.

“If that exam should hold on the 9th, the desired result will still not be gotten because the structures are rotten,” said Olaitan, the president of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSON), at the meeting.

Several civil servants who spoke at the meeting also agreed that the workers should not go for the examination.

“The tests should not hold at all. It is the responsibility of the Federal Civil Service Commission to conduct tests, not that of the head of service,” said a senior official of the ministry of transport.

Tope Ajakaiye, a deputy director and head of press and public relations unit at the office of the HOS, however, insists that the HOS has no hidden agenda for conducting the tests.

“The civil service has degenerated for a very long time. One of the ways to correct it is training. The name of the examination is post-training competence test. He (Mr. Orosanye) wants to know his competent officers,” Mr. Ajakaiye explained.

Though he declined to confirm if the results of the test would be a basis for promotion of the workers, the deputy director said the head of service was determined to conduct a re-sit examination because of the “complaints he received” over the conduct of the previous test.

Other reasons for rejecting test

It was learnt that apart from lack of clarity on the purpose of the test, one other reason the workers are rejecting the scheduled test is the shabby way the workers were treated during the last training exercise and tests held in Abuja from May 4-15.

“We all came to Abuja from our different postings. Nothing was provided for us, no transportation, no accommodation, nothing. Some of us even had to sleep at the venue of training. Up till now, even the local transport allowance that the head of service promised will be paid has not been paid,” said Mr. Adeyemo.

Mr. Ajakaiye, however, absolves Mr. Orosanye of any blame.

“Every ministry has travelling vote, so they are supposed to take care of that (the workers travel and accommodation) from their traveling vote. No ministry has informed the head of service that it will not pay,” Mr. Ajakaiye said.

He further explained that the HOS, in a letter to the various ministries, made it clear that it would only take care of local transport allowance for the workers.

However, the workers dispute this. “Our ministries say they have no directive to make such payment. Why should we believe the Head of Service when even the local tour allowance they claim they will pay, they have not paid. Do they think we have any stolen money like politicians to use for these journeys?” queried Mr. Adeyemo.

Unproven death

Several civil servants who spoke on anonymity claimed that some of their colleagues lost their lives while going to or returning from the test venue.

“Some of our colleagues died. The vice principal of the Federal Government College, Okigwe, died in an accident on her return journey from the training and test venue. Yet they want us to continue to travel, even when the test is illegal.”

Mr. Ajakaiye, however, denied knowledge of the death of any worker saying “when a civil servant dies, there is a process to be followed. From that period, we did not receive any information to that effect.”

Legality of such Test

The workers insist that by the civil service rules, only the federal civil service commission is permitted to conduct promotion examinations for senior civil servants. The commission was supposed to organise promotion exams for the staff on the 26th, 27th and 28th of July, but postponed it indefinitely.

The workers believe the postponement was engineered by the activities of Mr. Oronsanye, a claim the latter denies.

Though Mr. Ajakaiye denies that the test will be used as a basis for promotion, an undated and unsigned directive to all MDAs from the office of the HOS states otherwise.

“Officers should also note that a pass in the post-training test constitutes one of the necessary requirements for eligibility to be presented for the promotion exam when due,” the directive stated.

Presidency Intervenes

Mr. Olaitan, the workers union boss, told his members that President Goodluck Jonathan set up a committee to review the problems in the civil service and that the “committee advised the president to suspend the promotion exercise by the head of service.”

The workers, wearing angry looks on their faces during their meeting, set up a seven-man committee to work with its union executives to communicate their demand to the head of service.

These demands, which include cancellation of all examinations or test by the HOS, and proper reform of the promotion structure within the civil service, are to be submitted to the HOS tomorrow Monday.

However, Mr. Orosanye, through his spokesman, insists that the post-training competence test is just part of the reform in the civil service.

“If we want power, the civil service must be reformed because that is where the policies are formulated and implemented.”

Unless the Edo State government makes good its pledge to
finally halt the incessant encroachments on the Benin/Ogba Zoo and Nature Park
(BENZOPA), the priceless centre could descend into oblivion, like a great deal
of the once pristine forest estate of the state as a result of excessive human
abuse.

BENZOPA, although lucky to retain part of its naturalness, is
treasured as the last vestige of the Guinea lowland rainforest habitat found in
the Nigerian urban setting (if not West Africa). Herein exists diverse plant
and fauna, some of which are endangered or going extinct.

Situated at about 7km distance of the Benin City suburb of
Ogba, with about 27 hectares land area that is divided into the Wilderness and
Zoo sections, BENZOPA has assorted natural and artificial trees, animals and
birds in its free wild and semi-free-range enclosures. It serves as
environmental education and a recreational centre, where many visitors throng
to, all year round.

In a last ditch effort to wrestle the park’s land at all cost,
land scrambling overlords in the state, after sustained futile efforts, have
been promoting a campaign to discredit the park as a project that has failed to
meet the need for which it was established. They probably have sensed the moves
by state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, to restore the original master plan of the
park and chase out all illegal land acquirers in the former Ogba Forest
Reserve.

Incidentally, work on the rescue of BENZOPA, led by Andy
Ehanire and his Evernal Services Company, has been successful so far. Mr.
Ehanire, a keen environmentalist and national vice president of the Federation
of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN), has demonstrated a respectable
proclivity for conservation.

To effectively manage BENZOPA requires a lot of courage.
Firstly, it meant calling the bluff or stepping on the toes of the same
powerful land speculators that had unduly acquired and converted part of the
park’s land area, with the once rustic neighbourhood or its green zone fast
giving way to structures like the Ogba Housing Estate, located directly
opposite it.

Obviously, providing additional features to the centre has been
a capital intensive venture which the management consultants have had to meet.
Among the park’s major visitors are school-age children, who frequent the park
for environmental education and recreational purposes.

Before its takeover, the centre was a heartbreaking wreck –
beset with illegal logging of its old growth trees and poaching of its animals,
sometimes with the connivance of forestry officers.

Moved by the urgent need to bring back the park, BENZOPA has
been supported by the zeal of volunteer assistants, which include this writer,
Tony Oregbeme, and the late Samuel Shokpekhai. The last two are forestry and
wildlife experts of the state’s Forestry Department, who pioneered the
establishment of the centre. Mr. Shokpekhai, a naturalist and snake nurturer,
passed on recently.

Special status

Since it was taken over about a decade ago, the zoo section of
the park has been painstainkingly cleaned up, with the enclosures more reinforced.
The wild life part has also been partly provided with manicure ‘nature trails,
as most of its enclosures are restocked with appreciable presence of the cats,
primates, birds, reptiles etc.

Although the practice of ‘fauna species in the enclosures’ has
often been condemned by animal rights activists worldwide, as they would prefer
‘animals and birds in a free range system’, the zoo practice is still
relatively popular. With fauna in the enclosures, sight viewers, particularly
the younger ones, easily have a first contact with the species, rather than in
dicey protected areas or in pictures.

Besides, the ‘enclosure system’ or ‘captivity’ offers the ideal
opportunity for animal/bird breeding, especially to guarantee the continuous
survival of those species that are endangered or going extinct, which could be
bred and re-injected into the free wild.

By the way, BENZOPA is warming up to start a special breeding
programme, although the existing enclosures encourage breeding. Its playground
is constantly landscaped, re-grassed, and provided with some facilities.

Although the Edo State government has often showed its
readiness to address the problem of the conservation enclave, especially with
the recent fence-mending official visits to the protected site by the
environment commissioner, Clem Agba, the state has to redouble its effort to
give BENZOPA the desired respite by finally wading off its violators.

Being the first urban zoo and park to be given statutory
recognition in the country, Edo residents and mankind cannot afford to lose
this nature’s masterpiece to those insistent violators.

Dikko Nwachukwu, an entrepreneur with a rich heritage, is running
for the only senate seat for FCT. He explains how he intends to achieve his
goals to NEXT’s Emmanuel Ogala. Excerpts:

His inspiration to run
for senate

I have been very passionate about Nigeria, about making things
work, because when you go around the world and you meet friends from other
countries, especially friends from Ghana, they talk with such passion and pride
about their country.

If someone who has all the connections in the world, both locally
and internationally, cannot get a business up and running in Nigeria, then what
becomes of the average guy who has nothing? My passion is just to make this
country a better place really.

His special interest in
education

We need people who can hold elected officers accountable and
dissect the information that is coming out. I think for a long time we’ve been
looking at the wrong side of the solution. We’ve been looking at building more
schools, but that is not the answer. I think we need to look at a very
different set of approach, which is training of teachers.

I am aware we need more schools in FCT, especially primary and
secondary schools, but even if you build more schools and people teaching in
those schools don’t have the necessary skills, it is a waste of everyone’s
time.

My approach is one where we need to find money to train teachers
in the FCT so that they don’t run away to private schools with our
scholarships. Teachers need to be paid salaries on par with maybe managers, but
depending on the skills they have and the impact that they have on the
children.

His other plan for the
FCT

I think the FCT needs to find a way to reduce the cost of house
rent. Government needs to start encouraging and giving incentives to developers
who would focus on building low cost housing with cheap, but good quality
materials.

The process is actually tedious right now. We need to find a way
to make life more affordable in the FCT, and we have to figures a way to do
that because I am not sure legislation alone would force landlords to reduce
rent. We cannot tell somebody who probably borrowed money to build not to
charge so much.

Possibility of achieving
this through the senate

Abuja has a minister, which is the chief executive of the FCT.
Because Abuja has one senator, if that senator and the minister could work as a
team, the things that will happen in the FCT will be quite amazing. These
programmes I am talking about means getting more allocations from the federal
budget for the FCT, and we can work hand-in-hand to get the monies that we
need. I represent the people, he is appointed by the president. Therefore, the
minister needs me as a senator to get the monies he needs to execute projects.

Which platform will you
run on?

Peoples’ Democratic Party.

The PDP agreement that
only Gwari can represent Abuja in the senate

That’s an interesting one. Abuja was created to be ethnically
neutral area in the middle of the country; to be accessible to every Nigerian.
Abuja was created to be one place where every citizen in Nigeria can say: “I
have a home,” not just your state of origin. I have been here since 1991. I am
pretty much a native of Abuja.

Yes, I am not Gwari, or other indigenous tribe, but that was not
why Abuja was created. My heritage is one-quarter Igbo from Abia State (my
Dad); one-quarter Yoruba from Ogun State (my Mom); one-quarter Hausa from
Katsina (My father’s mother), and one-quarter Kalabari from Rivers (my mother’s
father).

So, I understand enough the issues facing a lot of people from my
interactions with my family.

No allowances as senator

I have been privileged in my life. I don’t need the money from
the senate to survive. I already own a house here in the FCT, my family is ok,
and we are doing fine.

I am also from a family that has a very humble lifestyle. We are
not ostentatious. The name that I carry is a very strong name, with a tradition
of doing the right thing and making people’s lives better.

I took a tour of the FCT and in my tour, I saw a level of poverty
that is very astonishing. There is no way I can see that and continue to take
millions of naira to stuff my pocket. Do I want to oppress more people or what?
For me, it is about service.

I am very cognisant of the fact that I want to affect people’s
lives and one thing I know I can do independently is control my allowances. So,
I have decided to take all my allowances and put them into a fund that will be
transparent, so that people will not say I am doing some gimmick or publicity
stunt.

It is something that is very personal to me. I am not criticising anybody
else for not doing it. I want to do that because of the woman who walks 20 km
to get water. If I can reduce that to 5km, then I have done something to
improve her life.

Calabar, capital of Cross River State, stands on the ethnic
tripod of the Efik, Qua, and Efut. Each has its own language, but owing to the
influence of western civilization, Efik is today the lingua franca of the city.
Efik traces its origin to Urruan in Akwa Ibom State, while Qua and Efut
migrated from Central Africa and Cameroon respectively.

The three groups are spread across six of the seven local
government areas of Cross River south senatorial district. These include
Bakassi, Akpabuyo, Calabar South, Calabar Municipal Council, Odukpani, and
Akamkpa. This mixture does not make for a dominant ethnic group in any of these
councils and entire Cross River south senatorial district.

Each of these groups has its own traditional government, headed
by a paramount chief. The Efiks have the Obong of Calabar, the Quas have the
Ndidem, and the Efut, Muri Munene. Before 1973, the Obong of Calabar was the
supreme traditional ruler of the city. Even now, the emergence of other
paramount rulers has not obliterated the influence and national acclaim of the
Treaty King and Grand Patriarch of the Efiks.

Characteristically, each ethnic group is troubled by occasional
succession crisis to its throne. Each time any of the three overall monarchs
joined his ancestors, the vacuum created becomes a recipe for crisis. Although
the Quas have had less trouble in producing a new Ndidem, the Efik and the Efut
have struggled to ensure smooth succession.

Right now, Cross River is gripped by such a crisis among the
Efut. Since the paramount ruler of Calabar south local government area and Muri
Munene of Efut, Ita Okokon Asikpo Ebuka-Ebuka 1V, passed away last September,
it has been impossible for the Efuts to have a substantive Muri Munene [supreme
ruler].

Two clan heads, Muri Ita Okokon Mesembe X1 [Efut Ibonda] and
Muri Effiong Okokon Mbukpa Ita Odionka Ebuka V11 [Efut Abua East] are laying
claims to the throne. Each is claiming to have been screened and installed by
the king makers as the new Muri Munene. Accordingly, two groups of kingmakers
have emerged in the kingdom.

While the Mesembe camp said only the six original clans founded
by the six sons of Efut progenitor are qualified to vie for the coveted crown,
that of Mbukpa has put a lie to it, claiming that by virtue of the Inoyo
Commission of the late 1970s, eight clans now hold sway in Efut land and are
each heir apparent.

That commission also recommended the rotation of the stool
among the eight clans. Both camps have submitted their nominees to the Cross
River State government for recognition, inauguration, and presentation of staff
of office as Muri Munene.

The irreconciliable differences between the two camps have
entrapped state governor, Liyel Imoke, who has found it difficult to decide on
who to endorse. The state government wants the factions to resolve it
traditionally.

But one of the groups is calling for a commission of enquiry
into the crisis, while the other said such an inquest is not necessary as a
monarch has already emerged.

It is believed that it was the turn of Efut Ukem, in Odukpani,
to produce a successor to Ebuka-Ebuka. But the candidate, Itam Hogan, a
professor of medicine, declined and nominated Mr. Mesembe from Efut Ibonda.
Then Mr. Mbukpa from Efut Abua, which produced the last monarch, announced his
interest. He said he took the crown because he was the only bold candidate to
perform the traditional burial rites of his predecessor, as required by the
custom of Efut.

Muri Mesembe has called on the state government to set up a
panel to investigate whether himself or his rival, Muri Mbukpa, is the
authentic successor to the throne of their forebears.

“The suggested investigative panel has become long overdue, as
it was the only way to dig to the root of the crisis and thus save Efut kingdom
from further embarrassment arising from these conflicting claims,” Mesembe said
in an interview in Calabar.

He advised the state government to raise the panel as a way to
rest the controversy, calm frayed nerves, and stave off any violent clash. “The
current struggle is between impostors and the true descendants of the six
original ancestors who founded Efut nation,” he said. “Anybody parading himself
today as leader of Efut nation is an impostor. We have never had such a
nomenclature in our traditional governance at its apex level. Some persons
somewhere are misleading members of the public, including the state
government.”

Unworried Efut chiefs

But reacting to the call for a panel of enquiry, the Efut
Combined Assembly (ECA), the highest traditional governing body in Efut
kingdom, refuted the allegations that the Efut was embroiled in succession
crisis and its secretariat factionalised.

Chairman of the assembly, Ndabo Obo E.E. Obo, made the refutal
at a meeting of the assembly held at the palace of the paramount ruler of
Calabar-South at Anantigha, Calabar, noting however, that the seeming crisis
was as a result of the passing away of the former Muri Munene.

Ndabo Obos said subject to the tradition and customs of the
people and after the obsequies of the deceased Muri Munene, a period was given
for the selection of a successor to the throne based on four criteria.

The criteria, he said, are that such candidates must be
initiates and title holders of Ekpe society; must have been a Muri (a certified
clan head) and officially presented to the ECA for recognition and royal
blessings by the Munene in Council; must have been a regular attendant at
meetings at ECA palace; and must be able to trace his ancestary to any of the
royal houses in Efut.

Based on these criteria, he said, Muri Effiong Mbukpa was
unanimously selected and enthroned as the paramount ruler of Calabar-South and
Muri Munene-elect, a position which had since last year been communicated to
the Cross River State government through the special assistant to the governor
on chieftaincy affairs, Emmanuel Arop.

He said the Muri Munene-elect has since ascended the throne of
his ancestors and had been peacefully coordinating the affairs of the people of
Efut and as such, there was nothing anybody could do to alter the wish of the
people.

“None of those rebels fulfilled the conditions as mentioned,”
he said. “One of them was stripped of his Ekpe title many years ago and he did
nothing to restore his title and could, therefore, not say that he is qualified
to ascend the throne of our fore-fathers.

“And all the four of them had withdrawn themselves from the
traditional matters of Efut over ten years ago on the ground that the former
Muri Munene was not literate and should not lord over them. Thus, they were not
qualified in meeting attendance.

“In effect, we have only one Munene on the throne and anybody
doing something else, is on his own,” he said.

In 2008, the Efik kingdom literally went up in flames following
the demise of the Obong of Calabar, Edidem Nta Elijah Henshaw, occasioned by
the politics over his successor. Residents of Calabar are wondering if the Efut
would manage their own better.

Thursday, July 29, was particularly hectic for media
correspondents in Ibadan. They were faced with two important national
assignments whose schedule were not quite definite.

Members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) were in Ibadan for
the better part of last week for their first ever delegates congress, the
climax of the congress was Thursday when an election to produce a new set of
national officers was scheduled.

Also, former military president, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, was
billed to visit the town to launch his presidential campaign in the
Southwestern zone of the country.

After waiting for the self-styled evil genius for several hours,
only the former governor of Niger State, Abdukadri Kure, showed up to represent
him. And as if that was not enough disappointment, the NBA’s election scheduled
to have been concluded by 2.30 pm dragged till around 10.30 pm.

The extension was understandable, though. Long before the
elections were held, there had been palpable tension within the ranks of the
Bar over who succeeds Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) as the NBA president. Mr.
Akeredolu was believed to have raised the Bar in the lawyers’ association
presidency with his brilliant and thought provoking contributions to national
issues during his two-year term.

He was not only loud in his comments on issues of national
importance, but on many occasions spoke against any government policies and
actions perceived to have contravened the provisions of the Nigerian
constitution. With this, the Bar was aware that whoever wanted to succeed him
must be ready and well equipped to keep the fire burning.

On the contest for the NBA presidency were Joseph Bodunrin Daudu
and Joe-Kyari Gadzama, both senior advocates and highly successful legal
practitioners.

They both paraded intimidating resumes that clearly made them
eminently qualified for the job.

But good quality is one thing, politics is another. To be
counted worthy, the two candidates did not only crisscrossed the length and
breadth of the country to solicit support and vote, they also employed the
services of foot-soldiers for further effect.

But after all the campaign and political maneuvering, the
Nigerian Bar entrusted the direction of its affairs in the next two years in
the hands of Daudu, late last Thursday, by giving him 781 votes, against 487
given to Gadzama.

However, long before the election, indications were rife that
the new president was the anointed candidate of the outgoing president.
Akeredolu himself confirmed his support for the new president, shortly after
the election. He told journalists that he had propelled Mr. Daudu, who was a
former chairman of the Kaduna branch of NBA, for the job owing to his sterling
qualities. According to him, though he has nothing against the other
contestant, he expressed high joy that his candidate won.

In the southwest where Akeredolu practices, lawyers within the
zone, under the aegis of Egbe Amofin, had risen from a general meeting to
pledge their total support for the candidate.

Also declared along Daudu are Blessing Emonena Ukiri, who won
the the 1st vice presidency with 483; Osas Justy Erhabor, the 2nd vice president,
winning with 447 votes; for the 3rd vice president, Ogugua Ikpeze won with 691
votes. Others are Oluwafunmilayo Oluyede, the new treasurer with 769 votes;
Olumuyiwa Akinboro, general secretary with 699 votes; Adekunle Ajasa as
financial secretary, with 679 votes; Sule Usman as welfare secretary, with 507
votes; Emeka Obegolu as publicity secretary, with 872 votes; Victor Chima
Nwaugo as legal adviser, with 709 votes; Stephen Terseer Abar, as 1st assistant
secretary with 617 votes; Paul Odah Ebiaia as 2nd assistant secretary, with 646
votes; and Augustine Obi Afam, who was returned unopposed as the 3rd candidate.

Hard battle

In his acceptance speech, Daudu described the election as a
“hard fought battle”, saying the process produced “no victor and no vanquished”.

Just before the result of the elections were formally declared,
members of the electoral committee, led by Obi Okusogwu (SAN), had a huge task
controlling the supporters of the new president, who already suspected that
their candidate was clearly leading.

The committee was forced to announce soon after the counting was
concluded, causing wild jubilation within the premises of Jogor Centre, where
the elections were held, and outside.

In consonance with the new system occasioned by the review of
the NBA constitution last year, the new national officers will be sworn-in at
the annual general meeting of the association, holding in August.