-Say: Position Is Through Promotion, Not Appointment
-Speaks on Nigerian Economy
As the world celebrates the International Labour Day with the theme Safety and health of workers, digitalization and the future of work,Comrade Francis I. Agba, Retired Permanent Secretary of the Imo State civil service commission has expressed concern over certain anomalies evident in the civil service of Imo state and vehemently faulted Governor Uzodinma’s appointment of the Imo Accountant General.
Speaking to our correspondent in Owerri, the state capital, Agba stated that Imo Workers and pensioners are celebrating the 2025 worker’s day unhappily because of underpayment, delayed payment, denials of entitlements, adding that some of them have turned beggars, begging even at the work environments. This he said was not obtainable during his years of service.
He noted that Minimum wage is the minimum amount you pay to any worker in a country and demanded to know what #70000 wage can do to an unmarried worker considering the situation of the country, let alone a married man.
Agba cited the 1999 constitution, section 210 which says that salaries and pensions of workers/pensioners should not be withheld, adding that no law authorizes any government to withold pensions or salaries but Imo State Government do that unapologetically.
Speaking on the Accountant General’s Appointment, Agba stated that the governor has no right to appoint the Accountant General of a state, “Accountant General is not a gubernatorial appointment, it is a civil service promotional post. Governor’s appointments are listed in the constitution. If the Governor can appoint Accountant General, it means the government’s money is in the governor’s hands. It can be likened to a Club chairman, appointing the treasurer of the club, it is not done. It a promotional position for an experienced accountant who has gotten upto the position of a director. All these complaints about irregularities in pension payment wasn’t in existence before. It is just like the recent appointment of the chief judge. The constitution says what should happen and people stated adding something to what has been already written. The law said appoint the most senior, it didn’t give option of deciding who the most senior is. The credentials are there to decide”.
“Civil service union was founded in 1912, there has never been an issue of irregularities in pension payment until now. Since they started wasting government money saying they are looking for ghost workers and pensioners amongst living people, which one have they found?. When government says they are verifying people, what they are asking people is to produce documents that the government issued to them which the government should have, that means the government is irresponsible. The documents are in the accountant general’s office.
“A man whose imagination centers on those stealing government money is not an honest person. Security operatives are there to find thieves if there are.
Agba advised Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinma to deal with the civil servants through the commissioners, “He should do away with special advisers. It is only the commissioners, head of service and chairman, civil service commission that are allowed to come into the office of the governor regularly.
“There is no place in the constitution that the government is given authority to appoint special advisers to execute any job. The constitution says assign duties to the deputy governor and commissioners of the state. This is why they are hiding the Nigerian constitution. People hardly see it. Those days the constitution was everywhere for people to read and understand.
“The Special Advisers ought not to be more than four in a government. Their duty is to provide third opinion to the governor on issues. A lot of these political advisers are friends of the governor whom he compensated with appointments for what they did for him during election. When a governor gets into office, instead of settling these advisers in a way he can settle a friend without causing confusion, he brings them into government to help ruin the system. If the governor was properly advised, he wouldn’t have made the mistake of appointing a chief judge who appears to be the most senior. They compromised, if they are benefitting today, will they still benefit tomorrow when another person comes into office. Government office is no man’s heritage.
Furthermore, Agba counseled Governor Uzodinma to work with civil servants that are trained through the commissioners. “The commissioner is the representative of the politician. The civil servant is the representative of the expert. They are trained for the job and have practiced for many years. Governors bringing in their own people who have no experience in the job is tantamount to failure.
“Public Relations doesn’t mean lying, it means making the news palatable. If the government is owing, his appointees will start lying that he is not owing instead of talking about the efforts the governor is making to pay. Facts can not be hidden.
When we were in the civil service, we were taught to tell our boss the truth privately and smoothen it publicly.
Expressing hope in Nigeria, Agba said “Our country needs a lot of prayers and education for people to know what should be done. Look at the local government operation. If you read section 7 of the constitution, it says a democratically elected Local Government is thereby guaranteed. The last judgement by the supreme court says that the local government allocations should be given directly to the local government not the state government, the original arrangement which made the state receive LGA allocations is so that the state can add money to it because the bulk of the job should be done by the LGA but now they have hijacked the LGA.
He conclusively stated that there is a lot of hope in this country if the right things are done. According to him, it is in the interest of the chief executive to obey the constitution. He charged Nigerian leaders to make selfless efforts now to better this country because “nobody guarantees he will live tomorrow. Once you are a public officer, do your job well and get away”.
