Dr. Innocent Head of Service Cross River State on Platform

Since the advent of the 4th Republic democracy, the Cross River State Civil Service has been in comatose.

In this interview with the MOFINEWS crew, the Head of Service of Cross River State, Dr. Innocent Eteng bares his mind on the strategies being adopted by the Prince Otu led administration to resuscitate and reposition the State Civil Service.

Sir, how did you receive the news of your appointment as Head of Service of Cross River State?

Well, it did not come as a surprise because we have to follow the procedure. Appointment of Head of Service of Cross River State, and indeed any State for that matter, is done by His Excellency, the Governor of a State in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended and the appointment is drawn from among the senior Permanent Secretaries in a State and I know that following the retirement of the former Head of Service, as the most senior Permanent Secretary, I certainly knew that I will be appointed as the Head of Service of Cross River State; so when the appointment was announced, it was not very strange because it was as expected.

Sir, you have been a co-pilot of the affairs of the State Civil Service right from when you were a Permanent Secretary. Now, what are your views about the civil service of today as compared to the civil service of the 1990s?

Thank you so much. Clearly, I have served as Permanent Secretary of the Local Government Service Commission; I have served in the Office of the Secretary to the State Government as Permanent Secretary General Services and Administration; and having served as the Director of Administration for the number of years before my elevation to the status of Permanent Secretary, I can tell you very clearly that the Civil Service of today, compared to the civil service of the 1990s is a far departure; but we are trying, we are doing our best to ensure that we put in place the necessary measures intended to reposition, to revitalize and bring back the lost glories of the service where rules and regulations were made to come into play; where procedure and adherence to the public/civil service rules and regulations were made the fundamentals; that is what I am trying to do and clearly we have a Governor who is a listening Governor, a Governor who is concerned with the welfare of the citizenry and the workforce; a Governor who is concerned about the betterment and promotion of the service ideals that is why we are embarking on very radical measures to ensure that discipline that is supposed to be the hallmark of the consummate civil servant is made to take pre-eminence in everything we do. So we are doing our best.

You are also aware that His Excellency the Governor has constituted a committee to review the public service rules because a good number of the rules we have are now obsolete, and we are trying to look at how we can modify them, how we can bring in some rules that will bring about efficiency and higher productivity because the civil service, being the engine room of government is expected to be very virile, to be very productive, to be very efficient and that is what I am doing as Head of Service. I am working very closely with the relevant agencies of government and in line with the directive of His Excellency to see that the civil service is strengthened so that the State civil service will stand very tall among the comity of high brow civil services in the country.

 Are there any differences or similarities in the roles of the civil service in a military and in a civil democracy?

Well, there are slight differences because in those days when we were operating with draconian rules of the military junta, you had rules that were not really followed because the military believed that they work by decrees and we had, at that time, the 1988 reorganization decree of the junta that also brought a number of changes. In those days we had the Director-General, but today we have the Permanent Secretary. Directors-General in those days were of the status of Permanent Secretaries of today; but that decree later on was abrogated, and the reform that came afterwards dropped that nomenclature; so we now have Permanent Secretary as the Accounting Officer of the Ministry.

When you are the Accounting Officer of a Ministry, it means that you are in charge of the staff, you are in charge of the finance of the MDA where you are posted to and you must work in accordance with the Financial Regulations and in accordance with the Civil Service Rules and other extant rules and government circulars. Circulars, including Establishment circulars, Civil Service Commission circulars, Head of Service circulars, the SSG circulars, are meant to update you; they are meant to tell you about reforms and new policies of government.

So, that to some extent, is a far departure from what it used to be in the olden days.

 If the civil service has so much to offer in the process of governance, what in your opinion do you think, was responsible for the lackadaisical manner past administrations had handled the growth and progress of the civil service?

Well, let me thank you. That question is very direct. There is no intention, whatsoever, to delve into the administration of the last administration, but I can tell you for certain, perhaps, the former man’s administration or the former dispensation was ill-advised because I think that the role of civil servants as the engine room of government is, first and foremost, to serve as adviser, Chief Adviser to the government of the day; so I do not pride myself in the fact that we know it all, but politicians are not civil servants, they don’t know the rules, they don’t know the civil service rules, so it is incumbent on us the civil servants to advise the government properly.

If you have, for instance, a Permanent Secretary or a Director of Administration or even so to speak, a Head of Service who does not know the rules of the game, then I do not think that they will be in a position to advise properly. Let me at this point commend the present Governor. He is doing so well; he seeks advise from the right quarters; at every point in time, matters that have to do with the service are immediately referred to my office for advice, and of course, I can beat my chest and say that, that is why he is doing well because I give him accurate and objective advice in line with the public service rules, in line with the extant rules and regulations governing the civil service, because I started my career as an administrator; I am happy that you have been my colleague in those old days and you know that I started my career as an administrator, and as an administrator, I have over the years imbibed so much administrative knowledge that I should be able to impact the upcoming generation and persons who are still in the service with my knowledge. And I think that as administrator, if I don’t get it right as Head of Service no other Head of Service will get it right.

 Some years ago, it was rumoured that a certain Governor had said that computers could do the work of civil servants. Sir do you agree with this assertion?

Well, I do not agree that computers will do the work of the civil servants because civil servants are human beings.

Though computers have a lot of applications that when you apply them they can give you results, but a human being is not a Robot, a human being thinks rationally and a human being is different. So I do not agree with that impression or instruction or thought by that Governor; that Governor, I know what you are talking about, because those policies, those ideas came up when that Governor, at that time, became very auspicious to down-size, to right-size; so many terminologies came into play. That is not what we are doing now. The implementation of any new minimum wage has often posed difficulties to some unprogressive States; while the progressive ones are always ever ready to implement any new minimum wage.

 How is the Cross River State government girding its loin to join the progressive States in paying the new minimum wage that is being expected?

Thank you so much. As much as I know I can tell you that the present Governor of Cross River State, His Excellency Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu is the people first Governor that is his mantra. What that means is that, welfarism is uppermost in his mind, and in fact when I assumed office as the Head of Service, the first charge that was given to me was to ensure that the welfare of civil servants is taken very, very seriously and that is what I am doing and you are quite aware of the fact that as a progressive Governor he has at every fora, told the people that he is going to stand by the decisions of the Minimum Wage Committee, whatever comes out, he is going to pay; as I speak you are aware that he has directed that forty thousand naira minimum wage should be added to all workers; he has given that instruction very explicitly, very unequivocally that with effect from May 2024, when salaries are paid, which is any moment from now, they will be paid to reflect the forty thousand naira so approved and directed; that shows you have a Governor who is committed. He has told us that when eventually the Federal Government comes up with the new minimum wage, he is going to abide by it to the letter because his interest is to ensure that workers fair well, workers are takenare of; it is when you are taken care of, that you are productive.

So I can assure you very authoritatively that the government of Prince Bassey Edet Otu, despite our pecuniary difficulties, despite the peculiarity of our circumstance, where our oil wells have been taken, where a number of economic measures have made the State very difficult to cope; but I can assure you, His Excellency is currently not owing salaries, both to the State workers and pensioners and he has introduced measures to cushion the harsh effect of the withdrawal of oil subsidy; you are aware that at a time he added ten thousand naira to all workers in Cross River State; it got to a time during the Easter he added money, it got to a time he has to ensure that the palliatives are distributed equitably to all and sundry and he is still doing his best; just when we were discussing how to cushion the harsh effect of the economic situation to ameliorate the difficulties civil servants are encountering, he announced to the chagrin of every person N40,000 increase in salaries from level one and above, what that means is that as Head of Service, we have worked very assiduously with the relevant government agencies and labour to ensure that things are done in a manner that will touch every worker because it is normal that when minimum wage is introduced there is something we do. There is a kind of consequential adjustment in salaries; that we have also done and I can assure you that, that he has also directed and approved. Any moment from now salaries will be paid to reflect that N40,000 minimum wage. So, join me in commending His Excellency the people first Governor.

 In addition to that, Sir, let us digress a little. Will that also include pensioners?

Yes, of course, the instruction His excellency gave was for all workers including pensioners, so that is being done and the office of the Accountant- General is working that out. Like I said before I am saying that any moment from now salaries will be paid and it is going to reflect the new salary structure.

 Outside the payment of a living wage, what other incentives do you think the State government should consider to attract the best brains into the service?

Thank you so much. We are currently working on a number of measures as directed by His Excellency to ensure that workers are properly motivated; incentives are being introduced. Like now, we are currently working on tax exemption for teachers to enable them put in their best in the service; we are working to see how we will also have allowances of professionals to be paid. Like those of you from the information sector, you will have something from that side. We are also working to ensure that well deserved civil servants who have put in their best to make sure that the service is going on, are encouraged by way of promotion. His Excellency has said promotion should go on up to 2023. Those who have not been promoted should be given promotion.

Like you have observed the last promotion exercise was not very regular because we have some haphazard promotions. In some MDAs, some staff were not promoted whereas some were promoted. He has directed that all those who have not been promoted should be promoted.

He has also directed that promotion implementation should be effected across the board without any further delay that is to say in the State public/civil service and in the Local Government, promotion should be effected immediately. Before now we have pockets of implementations where only few were benefitting; but he has directed that promotion across the board must go on. Like I have always told people, my office is introducing measures that will ensure that only those who got proper and correct promotion will have their promotion implemented. My office will do audit on the promotion and will send same to the Accountant-General’s office for your promotion to be implemented.

What I am also doing is to make sure that you produce your last letter of promotion because, for instance, if the Civil Service Commission by error has given somebody who does not deserve to be in a particular grade level, promotion to that grade level, if it comes to my knowledge, if my office discovers it, of course I will revert you to the rank you suppose to be because I am here as Head of Service of Cross River State to correct anomalies, to ensure that the service is strengthen, the service is repositioned. I like using the word “revitalized” for greater productivity.

In those good days, there use to be State established training institutions for the training and retraining of the lower and the middle level manpower. Some of these institutions are now moribund.

What efforts are you making to resuscitate these important training institutions?

Thank you so much; that is another very relevant question. Clearly, in those days we had, and we still have the MDI, which came into existence with a view to training middle manpower for the service to strengthen the Service. However, because of paucity of funds the last administration found it very difficult to strengthen and upgrade the status of that institution; but when I came on board I took very radical measures to ensure that the status of that institution was upgraded. I am working currently with the Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pension to ensure that we deploy adequate personnel who have the relevant qualification so that they will continue to train our lower and middle manpower.

We are also doing our best to ensure that the welfare of the staff, the students and the facilities are upgraded.

We are already working on that and we expect that it is not going to be long. When our situation improves, His Excellency will also support and give us approval for the upgrading of the institute so that we will be able to train our middle manpower. I agree with you that in those days, it used to be a reference point because they had top lecturers, top instructors but as of today, if you look at it we have very few people who are not even well equipped in terms of qualifications to teach but we are doing our best to ensure that in no time we will turn that around. I can assure you that in no time that will be done.

Today we have very few who are well equipped in terms of having the requisite qualification to teach, but we are doing our best to ensure that we turn that around.

Like you are also aware His Excellency, not long ago did so much to upgrade the facilities in the library, the State Library including renovation. In doing so he believes in training, he believes in learning.

So that the students, the workforce in the MDI who can avail themselves of the available reference materials in the Calabar library can read and update their knowledge. As you can see, we are also trying to see how that can be replicated in the MDI. Currently I have deployed to the institution a number of staff who, I know have the requisite qualification to teach there; and we are thinking that in no distance future we will turn around the institution to train the middle manpower that would enable the service handle the various functions and responsibilities that a State civil service provides.

 It is a known fact that the civil service has remained in comatose for some times. What steps are you taking for the civil service to be rejuvenated?

Yes, thank you so much. Like I had said before, when I came on board, not only when I came on board; a number of months ago it has been observed before I even came on board that the civil service was in a comatose situation because the service is ageing. Clearly, the service is stalking. What do I mean by stalking? Well you see senior staff from grade level 13 and above in greater number. The top echelon is loaded and wider while the lower base is thin. It is inversely conically shaped. Grade level 09 down to 03 is empty.

You go to an MDA, you cannot find a security man, you cannot find a messenger and you cannot find a low ranking personnel. What you find is that almost every civil service is a grade level 12 and above officer because of the ageing syndrome. Then you also find a situation where some persons whom we think worth their salt, would not want to retire and leave, unlike my former colleague here, Mr George Agbor that I know very well, he retired and left, but there are some persons who retired and wanted to recycle themselves, they don’t want to leave, the service. But when I came on board, we came out with a vision which was approved by His Excellency that all retired civil servants must leave. There is no question of allowing you time to mentor somebody.

You were expected to have mentored somebody before now, not to say that there is nobody to take over from you. The recruitment we are going to embark upon would be for the lower base and the middle class. We don’t want to recruit you when you are already approaching the rank of a Director. In fact the defence I have made to His Excellency which is awaiting approval any moment from now is that we should consider applicants who would fall within Grade Level 03 and 09 because when you catch them young, they will outlive the service so that when we go, there will still be people around who would get things going. I do not think that I should now come and appoint somebody who is a Director already; I mean I do not think so. It must be people who have long time to study the service, to know the service and to remain long in it to impact their knowledge to the upcoming generation that would come after them.

Now we are currently embarking on very radical measures to ensure that the service is strengthened.

We intend to bring in new rules; the new rules are to replicate one or two things from the Federal civil service rules. Take for example; let me tell you because I am the Chairman of the Committee. I will ensure that that is done. The Federal Civil Service has revived its service rules, if you are a Permanent Secretary, you are expected to serve for only four years in the first instance, thereafter the Governor can renew your tenure for another four years; otherwise you are expected to retire after working as Permanent Secretary for four years; because we believe that before you were appointed Permanent Secretary you must have worked for a very long time. You must have worked as a Director for years before you became a Permanent Secretary. You should not go and remain as a Permanent Secretary for another long time.

In those days before you even became a Director you would have few years to go; so when you become a Permanent Secretary, you would have few years also to go; not to be appointed and you remain as a Permanent Secretary for another fifteen years, it does not make sense and then you block the chances of others; it does not make sense at all.

Then if you are a Director for eight years you have to retire compulsorily after the eight years. We have to replicate these rules here. All these policies and thoughts are meant to improve the service.

 Sir, it is being rumoured that there is surreptitious filling of vacancies going on in the civil service. If this is true, is the State character observed in this exercise? Or can you disabuse the minds of the people of the State over these rumours.

Thank you so much. Let me tell you authoritatively that there is no such a thing like surreptitious employment going on. It is just that we found ourselves in a country or in a State where people talk, they have loose tongue, some people talk without verifying their facts. What happened few months ago was that His Excellency gave approval for conversion of a number of temporary appointments to permanent appointments in one or two MDAs. For example we have that in the Obudu Mountain Resort where a number of ad hoc and temporary staff who were due for conversion to permanent appointments were converted.

In fact we have a number of temporary appointments here and there and His Excellency gave approval for the temporary staff to be converted to permanent appointments. There have not been anything like surreptitious appointment; and in every instance, where approval was received from His Excellency, the office of

the Head of Service will be so notified. What the office of the Head of Service does is now to transmit, convey His Excellency’s approval to the relevant body or organ which is in charge of recruitment and that is the Civil Service Commission. What has happened in the past; in fact why His Excellency decided to suspend the recruitment that took place before he came on board was because it was marked by irregularities; and was not in accordance with the rules; it was not in sync with the public service rules. You know we are governed by rules. For example to be appointed into the service, you must not be less than 15 years and you must not be above 45 years of age and you must have the relevant qualifications. So if you are not conversant with the rules you can even appoint somebody who is above 45 years of age into the service. There is also another guiding principle. One who has an OND, a diploma in the Service, the starting point is level 06; one who has a degree or an HND, the entry point is level 08. One who has a Master’s degree, the entry point is grade level 09; one who has a Ph.D, the entry point is grade level 10. No more and no less. But if the Civil Service Commission is not conversant with the civil rules, they can even go and appoint somebody who has a first degree on grade level 14. Now what is suppose to be done as a matter of fact administratively is that you can only be appointed to an advertised post, when there is an advertised post and the vacancy is graded on grade level 14 and it is so advertised and you have the relevant qualification and experience you can be given that level 14. It is there in the public service rule, it is there in the extant rules and regulations; that is why the present governor has appointed a retired Permanent Secretary as Chairman of the Civil Service Commission.

His belief is that he is knowledgeable. He grew from the ranks to become Permanent Secretary before he retired; and I so advised His Excellency and he is following my advice, that the Civil Service Commission should be manned by persons who have service background, and that is what he is doing; I must commend him because what obtained in the last administration was that you had somebody who did not have a service background as the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission even if the gentleman has capacity. There is no intention to belittle anybody. He has capacity, I must confess because I have interacted with him; but I kept saying and I have said it at different fora that he has no service background, and where you don’t have a service background what do you expect? There will be a number of irregularities. I can assure you, I can tell you very unequivocally that there is no such thing like surreptitious appointment under my watch as Head of Service of Cross River State and of course, His Excellency the Governor does not even believe in those kinds of thing. What he has also done was to ask my office as Head of Service to work in liaison with the Commissioner, Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pension to come up with the manpower gap to ascertain the vacancy positions; thereafter, the request will be forwarded to his Excellency for approval to recruit. When the approval comes we are going to undertake a proper recruitment process. What do I mean by proper recruitment process?

What that means is that the vacancies will be advertised in the dailies and in CRBC and all over for people to see and you will now apply; when you apply you are shortlisted for interview. You are going to appear before the Civil Service Commission with your original credentials, thereafter, those eligible will be shortlisted and be offered appointment, offer of appointment letters, after which you now come with your credentials and you must be appointable.

To be appointable in the civil and public service of a State, you must have a good medical record. His Excellency has also warned that the next exercise should be very equitable. We are not going to ensure that one particular Local Government Area gets it all; like for instance, we are not going to ensure that if you are from Yakurr, because I am the Head of Service and I am from Yakurr you should be automatically employed or Yakurr should fill all the vacancies. If you have 2,000 vacancies for example to employ and you employ 1,500 from Yakurr alone, His Excellency will be against that and my administration as Head of Service will frown at that. So we are going to be fair. I can assure you. The applicants must have good medical records; they must have good medical records certified by a government hospital to show that they are fit to take up the appointments. So you see, we have rules that govern appointment. So when people talk that there is surreptitious appointment, I laugh because their fact cannot be verified and of course not under my watch as Head of Service. As an administrator I must ensure that the rules are followed.

Like as I had said before, those approvals that were given before His Excellency came on board were approvals for conversion of temporary staff who have worked for long and it is in accordance with the rule because the rule says that if you are a temporary staff in an MDA for a number of years, you should be converted to permanent appointment.

In those days you would just convert them but because of the difficulties of our times, you don’t just convert them, you must seek the approval of government. Such persons if they are converted the Civil Service Commission will interview them. The junior or senior staff management committee in their respective MDAs will send the recommendations to the Civil Service Commission which will issue the appointees with offer of appointment letter, that offer of appointment letter enables the appointment to be rectified or the appointees will be given fresh appointments by the Ministry of Establishments.

So when some people see such persons with letter of appointment, they will say “ok” there are some appointments going on. But I can assure you not under my watch as Head of Service. The proper recruitment process will take place very soon. I am sure before the end of the year we will place adverts. Eligible Cross Riverians should be able to come and indicate interest if they are appointable and they have the requisite qualifications.

I can assure you it is going to be fair. His Excellency has also warned that the next recruitment exercise should be very very equitable and transparent.

 What can you say, Sir, that are the challenges of your office?

Thank you so much. Actually, most importantly is the issue of fund. This office is a very big office. The office needs funds to do a number of things. For instance, I am expected to take very regular inspections of the MDAs in Cross River State. I cannot do so without funds.

There is also the issue of lack of personnel; for instance, in the whole office, like the office of the Head of Service, if I tell you that the staff strength here is not up to 30, you should understand where I am coming from. But His Excellency is doing his best for us to return to our monitoring function.

I have started to put the necessary machinery in motion for us to reintroduce the civil service monitoring mechanism. I have issued a circular for compilation of staff nominal rolls by all MDAs. With the nominal roll, we can eliminate ghost workers because nominal rolls will be examined side by side with the payroll that is salary vouchers of the MDAs. If the names in the nominal roll are less than the names in the voucher, then it will be a clear evidence that something has gone wrong somewhere without going the whole hog of carrying out staff verification. In fact this is the simplest way of tackling the ghost workers syndrome.

Finally, Sir, your message to Cross Riverians, particularly, the civil servants.

Thank you, thank you. First let me use this auspicious occasion of the celebration of one year in office to thank His Excellency, Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu to commend his style of leadership, to say that he has done so well for Cross River State in terms of the policies he has embarked upon including the Agro policies, roads infrastructure and the policies that have impacted very positively on the State.

They are welfare oriented policies. You can see the massive road network construction and maintenance he is undertaking, you can see that the street lights are working again, you can see that the last Christmas Carnival was judged as one of the bests with so much tourists flocking into Cross River State; and that is also to improve on the State economy, internally generated revenue and the rest; so I want to commend him. He has done so much. I wish him well and I congratulate him on this auspicious occasion of celebrating his one-year-in-office and also to wish him God’s guidance and protection and to continue to give him good health.

For our civil servants, they should work in tandem with the guiding principles of civil service administration; they should continue to put in their best to reciprocate the good gesture of His Excellency, Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu by working hard and being efficient. I am happy to tell you that His Excellency has directed that the civil servants should be reciprocated for their hard work.

Thank you

Interview by:

Margaret Asikong and George Agbor