By: Ugagaoghene ogheneyole N.
Most times, we tend to criticize politicians for all the problems we are facing as a continent, but in the real sense everybody is responsible in one way or the other.
Today i will be talking of citizens attitude towards work and its resultant effect on the economy most expecially in the public sector.
I will be citing practical experiencies to butress my points. Workers(public servents) around Africa have a very bad and nagative attitude towards work and service and untill this is addressed, we will remain where we are as a contintnent.
When you are employed by any sector of government to serve in any capacity, you are engaged and paid to render a specific service to the people, and you are paid with tax payers money hence in essence, the people you are serving are your actual employers. So you are not doing them a favour by doing your Job because they are paying you to serve them.
The attitude potrayed by Africans in public sector, if it is allowed in any private firm, that firm will loose patronage in two months and fall out of business.
I went to the polytechnic where i graduated from some years back, last week to get my Result, on Arrival i was supposed to pick up my updated identity card to enable me get the result, i got there quite early, at about 1pm, so i approached the man issuing the Identity card, he said i could not get mine because mine is part of those he has not picked up from the woman in IMS department and that he can not go and pick it up because the woman have left the school to attend an occaaion (at about 1pm which is a working hour), her official closing time is 4pm but she has left her duty post to attend a social functionby 1pm. So i have to wait until the next day.
The impact on me is that i had to spend an extra day which i never budgeted for, i had to lodge in a hotel, and make other expenses involved in an extra day including feeding.
The Next morning, the man asked me to go to her office to wait until she comes so i can inform him, resumption time is officially 8am, I got to the IMS office by 8:10am and was told she is yet to resume, i waited till 10am and she was also yet to resume, at that time, the man issuing the card came to meet me there and on finding out that she is still yet to come, placed a call throgh to her, and she told him that she will be in school by 11:30am because she has a special prayers she attends in her church every wednesday morning. This is a woman that by law is suppoesd to resume by 8:am.
After all the waiting, i got my identity card at about 11:45am and proceeded to get my result at records and statistics department, my statement of result was soughted out, but i was asked to go and repay for one of my reciept which was missing.
On my return, i was looking at my statement of result and the lady who is to attend to me just got a call and asked me to wait as she opened conversation with the person at the other end of the call, i waited for over 37 minutes and she was still on calls, every other person including her fellow staff who came to her office for something had to wait until she was done with the call which was a personal call.
In the end she attended to us after over thirty minutes of waiting for her to finish with her calls, and yet am her employer as a tax payer and she was employed and paid monthy to serve me. So within me i asked, if this is my private company, will my employer keep me waiting over frivolities like she just did?, if i was a customer would i patronize the firm again?
Now the implications on that delay was that i ended up getting my result some minutes past twelve noon, something i was supposed to be done with by 9am if their attitudes towards work were right. Because of this i missed the appointment i had in warri by 3 pm and so i lost money.
Within this same period, my wife was processing her international passport at the imigration office Asaba, she even had to pay thirty five thousand Naira instead of twenty-five thousand Naira to one of the staff if not she would not get her passport done in a months's time. She has to wait at the office from morning to evening for three days before she managed to be get it done.
With all these, the staff talked down at her, insulted applicant, and treated them as though they were beggers and that they(imigration officers) were doing them a great favour, meanwhile they are paid with the tax that the citizens pay.
Favouritism and nepotism has become the order of the day in our public sector with public servants acting the way they like because there is no checks and balances.
In same vain i went to my local government of Origin early this week to collect my voters card, by 8am the inec office (Ozoro) was filled up with people who have come from different villages but the Inec staff did not come until some minutes pas 9am. It took them another 30 minutes to settle down.
They were so relunctant, nonchalant and rude to almost everyone, except some few faces known to them and their friends.
People were complaining and they did not mind, they kept addressing us all as if they were doing us a fovour. They would take fincancial inducements from those willing to give bribe and sought their own out fastly.
Market women, farmers, students, traders and civil servants all left their buinesses, lectures and work to collect their voters card, and these people kept almost everyone for the whole day.
The worst part is that there were no one in all the sectors mentioned that were assigned to monitor workers and staff for compliance to service code.
My question then is what is the duty of servicom, ICPC, Ministry of Labour etc.
This issues of staff attitude has become a big problem in our public sector and is affecting our economy, therefore we must address it sqaurely if we must move forward as a contintent.
I have spoken to my friends in both western and southern Africa such as zambia, south Africa, Namibia, Cameroon, etc, and the situation seems thesame across the continent.
Who's duty is it to address these vices? The duty is for everyone, the government must set up effective monitoring platforms at all levels to motinor staff compliance to public service code and ensure that people do not evade their working hours or abuse their offices.
We as citizens too must be sensitive to these societial ills, you should know that you have the right to be served right, if you are not, please make sure you raise alarm, caution the staff and report him to his superiors if there is any, if not then put up petitions to the appropriate quarters or make use of the social media.
Journalist should move away from reporting only political activisties, they should look into the public sector and write about these decadence, they should indict culprits through investigative journalism.
Civil society organizations must also talk about these ills. We must talk about them as much as we talk about politics,
Let us all get involved in ensuring an ideal society.
Note: this is an intellectual property of Voice of the street advocacy magazine (an offical publication of Revive Africa Initiative), no part of this work should be published, reproducused, copied or shared without crediting it to the source.
About Revive Africa Initiative
You raise topic of great concern. You do justice to it. You see, my dear, fight against corruption is invariably bigger fight against indiscipline. This is what individuals in respective societies across the "third world" lack - the distinguishing trait of self discipline. Beyond the individual, we are not talking only about purchasable senators, dishonest politicians, venal police officers or vile and defaulting judges, but on a broader scale, corruptible populace. So we contend not just individual self-indulgence but indiscipline institutionalised. One man is daring, bold and courageous. One man is feared and dreaded, Buhari.
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