FCTA AND CIVIL SERVICE RULES

I write this letter to you our President, Bola Tinubu, on the recent happenings in the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), particularly the issue regarding who should be its chief accounting officer. It is clear to all that the present most senior director of the FCTA, in the absence of a permanent secretary, is, according to the provisions in the Civil Service Rule, supposed to have proceeded on his pre-retirement leave.

The most senior director in the FCTA is supposed, in accordance with the law, to have since proceeded on his pre-retirement leave because he has less than eight weeks to his retirement. And this, Mr President, make it mandatory for him to leave office for the next most senior director to take charge till your administration does the needful by the appointment of a permanent secretary. It is known all over the world that the civil service is hierarchical in nature and this makes seniority the major pillar of succession when it comes to occupation of certain offices like that of the chief accounting officer of any ministry, department or agency (MDAs).

Mr President, your administration came to office with a message of renewed hope. Thus, we the citizens owe it a duty to help to make your government’s renewed hope agenda become a reality and, most importantly, a rapid departure from the past when sloganeering and wishful thinking were the order of the day. In the face of the Civil Service Rule today, all actions taken by the most senior director after the date of his retirement are null and void.

Mr President, I hope that in this dispensation your message that there should be no sacred cow or an exception to the rule is carried out to the letter by your expeditious directives to the head of the civil service of the federation that this issue be thoroughly investigated and the right thing done immediately.

We trust your commitment to making the civil service which is the heartbeat of our nation one of the best bureaucracies in Africa and the world in general in the implementation of government’s policies and programmes. Building a virile and morally upright workforce is one which importance cannot be over-emphasised.

Comrade Jacob Simon, 

Abuja