When Public Service Rules Don’t Matter in the National Assembly

Igbotako Nowinta draws attention to glaring cases of abuse of the Civil Rule at the National Assembly

Legislative historians, scholars, the media recently watched with utter amazement the drama and intrigued displayed by the Senate Committee on Public Petitions as it threw out a petition originated by Crime Free & Peace Initiative, against Okpara Michael Nnaechi, Secretary of Planning & Legislative Budgets, Dauda Ibrahim El-Ladan, Clerk, Senate and Adebayo Anthony Ademola, Secretary Special Duties, for age falsification and forgery, an avoidable crime that has engulfed the National Assembly bureaucracy since October 2021 the exit date from service of the current Clerk Senate El-Ladan Ibrahim Dauda.

What the Senate would have done in its own wisdom, was to have directed the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), under the leadership of Engr. Ahmed Kadi Amshi, to immediately suspend the trio mentioned above according to the extant provisions of the Public Service Rules in Nigeria? This is a clear case of the Clerk Senate, Dauda Ibrahim El-Ladan being a judge and a jury in his own case since he remained in office as the Clerk to the same senate that presided over his case. He was said to be on seat as Clerk Senate the day the petition was laid before the senate Where is fairness and equity in the Nigerian Senate?

The powers that be in the National Assembly are wasting public funds in an unnecessary legal tussle with Senior Advocates of Nigerian (SAN) lawyers standing for the defendants to frustrate and vex the plaintiffs at the Federal High Court in Abuja; employing technicality of preliminary objections to buy time which might ultimately give the defendants enough window of opportunities to resign from office.

The National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) team, in their desperation in protecting these erring staff is maneuvering menacingly like sharks in the shallows. What we see is absurd and comical, Engr.Ahmed Kadi Amshi and his pay masters in the National Assembly are offering themselves as ugly vessels of misnomer and walking lies against laid down rules guiding the public service in Nigeria; this perfectly represents a huge minus against sanity in the nation’s highest parliamentary body.

I remember vividly in June 2020, the controversial case that involved the former Clerk to the National Assembly, Barr. Mohammed Ataba Omolori over tenure elongation. Omolori was shown the way out of office with speed! One would have expected the National Assembly Service Commission to replay the type of administrative swiftness it displayed uncompromisingly against the ex- Clerk to the National Assembly, in this particular matter?
In this case, we are seeing the present acceleratonists of disorder, double dealings and tactics blasting at full throttle, to defend at all cost, and by all means a sacred cow ( Dauda Ibrahim El-Ladan, Clerk, Senate), who allegedly deliberately altered his official records (1961,1962 and 1963) with his collegues
Facts remains that the embers of self-destruct being stroked and fanned by powerful vested interest is baffling.This surely remains a recipe for disaster, instability and retrogression which is contrary to the idea behind the creation of the National Assembly Service Commission.

As a professional mediator and conciliator, l am abreast with the fact that once a public servant is found on the other side of the Public Service Rules, what immediately comes to play is the application of the principle of suspension by his superiors within the service.

But, today what is playing out in the National Assembly is shocking and laughable, the Public Service Rules statutorily invented in Nigeria, to comprehensively regulate and control public servants is being turned into an ordinary piece of paper. This conduct is obviously another test of the integrity of the Nigerian Senate.
For the avoidance of doubt, via my private investigations, l discovered that the management of the National Assembly Service Commission and National Assembly had undertaken an internal enquiry, as far as consulting the Kalamazoo (Official records of the affected staff), and discovered that they actually falsified their personal records, to arrive at present positions.

As l pen this piece, the three alleged falsifiers of their documentation are resuming and working daily in the National Assembly collecting salaries, as if nothing is happening to them. To me this is the highest level of manifestation of clastic inclinations, which has blinded the current leadership of the National Assembly, to contravene the cardinal statutory facts and truth embedded in the Public Service Rules.

The actions taken so far by the National Assembly Service Commission creates an impression that it at war with itself and exposing the entire National Assembly as an institution and the integrity of the Senate President whom we are aware recommended the appointment of the Chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission, Eng. Ahmed Khadi Hamshi to ridicule. Posterity beckons on the Commission to do the right thing by jettisoning its present course of action which will wreck incalculable damage on the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the entire National Assembly. It demand that they summon their patriotic zeal and instinct, subjugate narrow selfish interest of a few in favor of the primacy of collective interest as they cannot afford to fail.

Further investigations has revealed the fact that the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) is also turning things upside down in the entire National Assembly Service contrary to Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. For instance the principle of Federal Character in distribution of appointments is being thrown aside with flagrant impunity. Amongst the 18 top management staff each zone is supposed to have 3 slots according to statutory provisions in the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) Act 2014 & the Condition of Service.

Currently North-west is having four slots; Northeast three; South-east three; Southwest three; South-south three, while North central is given two slots, instead of three slots; while the three slots allocated to South-south are allocated to only Edo State, out of the six States in the zone, even where there are more senior competent directors with enormous experience from Cross-River and Akwa-Ibom respectively.

This offensive case has pried opened the ethnic/ religious divides cleaving our country; hence the absolute deep shit we have found ourselves in terms of unbridled corruption prevalent in our clime.

We must not allow the likes of Ahmed Kadi Amshi and his gang in the National Assembly, to quench the thirst and hunger in our souls in asking for what is fundamental about discipline in the Public Service Rules and the Conditions of service in the National Assembly here.
We must evolve the inalienable rights that is so fundamental to many Nigerian staff in the Public Service, which is central to their ability to participate fully and equally in our society.

Igbotako is a human right activist, mediator and a social commentator based in Abuja.