Since he was sworn in as the Head of Service (HOS) in August 2014, Mr Danladi Kifasi has brought about remarkable turnaround in the Federal Civil Service and this gentleman is worthy of recognition and commendation.
Yes. It has been less than one year and it may sound somehow awkward to assess the performance of public officer in such short time. But indigenous adages from several cultures have a way of perceiving and expressing such phenomenon, “A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted from the very day it hatches,” so go one of such adages. Kifasi’s work as the helmsman of Nigeria’s civil service meets the projection of this adage in all respect, which explains why he was among the 305 Nigerians who received the National Honours from President Goodluck Jonathan within weeks of mounting the saddle.
Right from when he took oath of office to replace Mallam Bukar Goni Aji upon retirement, Kifasi demonstrated the focus needed for the job. He did not do “the naija” thing of bad mouthing his predecessor or wasting time, effort and resources trying to destroy the legacy he met on ground but instead channelled his energy to strengthening such legacies, building on them and expanding into new areas that have set new frontiers for civil servants.
Perhaps, these qualities of his could have been the motive of those who fought to prevent Danladi Kifasi’s emergence as the HOS. If this is true, then it would have confirmed the assertion in many quarters that those who benefit from any existing inefficiency in the country are usually allergic to the emergence of any individual who will bring transformation to any area of our national life. Thankfully, the entire shenanigans failed as those who cried wolf were unable to sway Mr President, who was resolute on getting the best candidate for the job at hand.
In the bedlam that have become symptomatic of the nation’s polity, few people have slowed down adequately to observe that the era when civil servants are routinely fingered or named in grand corruption is now over.
This can only be the dividend of a transformed civil service that has become professional to the point of being able to navigate the tricky minefield of managing political demands without compromising work ethics.
In support of President Goodluck Jonathan’s stance on eliminating corruption in the procurement process, Kifasi brought to the fore the fact stated in Section 20 of the Public Procurement Act 2007, which vested the responsibility for compliance on the accounting officer. He has thus ensured that permanent secretaries are to be held responsible for any corrupt practices which might occur during procurement processes in their respective ministries even after they have retired. This has gone a long way towards bringing efficiency into how scarce resources are deployed for national development.
At the root of this newfound efficiency is the drive by the Kifasi led civil service to bring the federal government workforce up to speed with global trend as evident in taking the computerization of processes to a new height. Besides just upgrading hardwares and softwares, the men and women who have to daily use these variables have also been further empowered.
Today, one sees a workforce that is not locked in the Stone Age as was once the case. The method adopted is such that civil servants are now reference points when one has to talk about the technological advances Nigeria has made.
A direct consequence of this has been the rebuilding of capacity that has seen to it that only functions that are genuinely necessary are outsourced to consultants. This has implications for government ability to re-direct savings from not engaging consultants to other areas of pressing needs. It was in response to the HOS’ observation that ministers and government officials were resorting to hiring of consultants to do the tasks federal civil servants are employed to do because of poor service delivery. Of course, the empowerment was preceded with a directive that officers must henceforth, treat files on their tables within 72 hours, failure, which would attract sanction.
Such savings are life saver at a time when the country’s finances are facing challenges – falling crude oil price and naira depreciation – certainly demands that the country saves. In this, Kifasi’s pragmatic approach to issues again surfaced. He immediately came up with the idea of scaling back spending on areas that can be done without. This meant that he had to halt overseas training in preference for in-country trainings that ensure that civil servants continue to have the opportunity of improving on their skills while the country saves money at the same time.
Given that Kifasi still has a lot of time on his hands to take the nation’s civil service to new heights; one can only urge him to continue doing those great things he is doing right. One of these is the decision to now train civil service at home and not abroad. In this regard, he has a huge resource in form of the Civil Service Training Institute. Granted that there legislative issues to iron out for the institution to access crucial funding, Kifasi can bring his mien as a peace builder to bear and even transform this institute into a full fledge university of administrative studies. He can also see to it that the nation fully migrate to e-administration and there will be no reason for files to stay beyond 48 hours with any unit without getting attention while also cutting the cost of physically moving files among offices.
By doing these, Kifasi would have further cemented his ranking as seasoned administrator in addition to solidly imprinting his foot prints on the terrain of the civil service in Nigeria. One must however admit that he has done greatly well in this aspect but only need continue in that direction.
This is because Kifasi is well known in this country today as a team player, a dependable ally and a worthy partner in the Transformation agenda.
