Iyayi: Nigeria’s civil servants world’s most inefficient

JETHRO IBILEKE/Benin

Nigerian public servants have been described as the most inefficient and ineffective in the world.

A former President of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities, Prof. Festus Iyayi who made this observation, added that “the quality of service they provide is perceived to be very poor.’’

The Professor of management science made the submission in a lecture entitled “The imperative for service quality in the public service” delivered at a four-day SERVICOM-organised workshop in Benin for participants from MDAs across the country.

He defined service provision “as a process that creates predetermined benefits by effectuating either a change of service consumers, a change in their physical possessions or a change in their (in)tangible assets.’’

Iyayi also defined public service as those institutions of the state involved in providing services to the people living within its jurisdiction, either directly or by financing private provision of service.

The University Don, however, expressed worry that “over the years, there have been complaints about the productivity, work attitude and quality of service provided by the public service to citizens and non-citizens.

“These complaints’ have come from almost anyone who has had contact with the public service, including even Presidents of the country,” he said, noting that “at the of the university of Nigeria in 1982, Alhjai Shehu Shagari, President of Nigeria at the time, described Nigerian workers as having the worst attitudes to work in the world.’’

According to the Professor, former President Olusegun Obasanjo at a retreat on service delivery in March 2004, said “regrettably, Nigerians have for too long been feeling short-changed by the quality of public service delivery.’’

“In general, the evidence and our individual/ collective experience show that public servants in Nigeria are not trusted; believed to be absolutely corrupt; inefficient anf ineffective.’’

He said the consequence of this was that “Nigeria is rated as one of the poorest in the world and we have the third highest population of the poor in the world and the worst maternal and infant mortality rates in the world,” he said, warning that no public service “that is perceived in this manner or that actually performs in this manner can fulfil the development potential of its people.

Iyayi noted that SERVICOM-organised workshop would assist to bring about excellence in the quality of service delivery, adding that the service quality needs of the public service requires the public service to deliver excellent service to customers.

He described excellence to mean providing products and services that have good qualitative in a high degree or which surpass goods and services provided by other similar organizations in some good quality, noting that excellence was a journey not a goal which required 98 per cent of hard work and 2 per cent of inspiration.

“Excellence does not just happen; it is designed and pursued to happen. However, SERVICOM relies on people, real people in the public service to make the difference.”

While describing service quality as indispensable, he added that “if Nigeria is to make it as a country, the quality of service we get from the public service will determine the quality of governance and hence, the country that we have.’’

Earlier, Mr Sylbriks Obriki, Senior Special Assistant to President Goodlucck Jonathan on SERVOCCOM said the workshop was aimed at capacity building designed to provide advanced training on service delivery to MDAs.

Obriki, who is also the SERVICOM national coordinator, in an address, noted that Jonathan was now poised to reinvigorate the once `comatoze SERVICOM to improve public service by promoting trainings on service delivery for public servants.