– Hameed Ali, the Nigerian Customs Service boss, has been in a serious battle with the National Assembly which wants him to wear the agency’s uniform
– Abdullahi Sabi now wants his colleagues to ensure, through a bill, that only career officers would be appointed into government agencies
Senator Sabi Abdullahi has said he would sponsor a bill that will make only career civil servants head government agencies and parastatals.
Hameed Ali was recently sent out of the Senate chamber for refusing to wear the uniform of the Nigerian Customs Service
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Abdullahi, who is the spokesperson of the Senate, was reacting to the refusal of the comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col Hameed Ali’s (rtd), to wear the service’s uniform and on the proposed policy for vehicle owners to pay duty on their vehicles.
Abdullahi said that it was a disservice for civil servants not to be given the opportunity to head organisations they laboured decades to build. He added that bringing people from outside to head the agencies and parastatals had done more harm than good to the organisations.
READ ALSO: Wearing customs uniform will belittle Hameed Ali – David Jemibewon
He argued that some of the appointees have little knowledge of the workings of organisations they head, and this leads to anti-people policies, reduced productivity and other problems.
“I have a bill I am working on; I am trying to bring my experience of how little things have brought the public service to what it is now.
“There has been reform but it has not changed anything.
“It is a disservice for me to be eyeing a career peak and just when I think the opportunity for me to get to that career peak is going to come, something happens.
“And, it is not just this one happening in the Customs, it happens in many parastatals; that is the fate they suffer unfortunately.
“So, we have to begin to choose between what is a career peak and a political appointment.
“Even within the career peak, for example, the head of civil service; it is a political appointment but it is done among those who are in the career service,” he said.
Concerning the argument that appointing career officers to head agencies could breed corruption, the senator said: “The question there is that, is the system not having a way of sanctioning and discipline? There is a way of sanctioning and discipline; every career does.
“In companies, the private sector, if you are doing the wrong thing there is a discipline for you and if it means taking you out of the system, they take you out of the system.
“My take is that it is a wrong thing that I serve as officer, maybe grade level 8, rose to grade level 16 or 17, without a query, and I have very good record of performance, with promotion and everything.
“Just at that last stage, you say that if you give it to me I am going to be corrupt.
“The person who is brought in, what will he protect in the system. But the career person has contributed to the system, has defended and protected it, and has promoted the system.
“So, those who are in service have more to protect for the interest of the system than those who are brought in because they have nothing to lose,” he said.
He added: “I have a lot of examples while in service. We were managing about 26 research institutes and colleges.
READ ALSO: I’m taking legal advice on the issue of wearing uniform – Hameed Ali tells Senate
“I will tell you that over the past 10 years or 15 years that I know in the research institutes, for example, all the executive directors brought from outside remained the worse executive directors in those institutes.
“The case of Cocoa research is there, you can go and investigate; Lake Chad Research Institute is also there, just as Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI), Ilorin. There are many examples.
“We have many people who are brought from outside and they just come and mess the whole place up and mess those people who have given their whole life to a system.”
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