WHO IS ORONSAYE? ADAMU ADAMU

In a democracy like ours, the three arms of government are supposed to check each other in order to eliminate abuse of power. But even if they perform their functions, there won't be accountability in the democracy without the enforcement of proper procedure by the civil service. With its informed advice that may not be refused, the civil service keeps the executive arm in check.

To be able to perform its role as an effective check on an executive to whom it must also be loyal, the civil service needs to have be merit-based and not a system of spoils; it must be politically neutral and not politicized; it must be loyal to, but not intimidated by, the government, because it must always retain the right to be able to advice fearlessly and insist that proper procedure be followed by power.

This is something that today's civil service is no longer able to do; and that is the great feat that Mr. Stephen Osagiede Oronsanye has achieved as Head of the Civil Service of the Federation; and that is the task he is trying to finish with the powers of the new job he is desperately lobbying for--the chairmanship of the Federal Civil Service Commission.

Lest we forget, Oronsaye was brought into government by former finance minister, Anthony Ani in 1995 as a personal assistant on salary grade level 12. A grandiose salary package for Oronsaye prepared by Ani was rejected by General Sani Abacha; and Oronsaye was given GL 12 on a take-it or leave-it basis--and he took it. Later, as he dilly dallied trying to find a niche to hang on to, he was sent away by then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Gidado Idris.

He was brought back when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo came into office and, as a president wanting to find fault of predecessors, was looking for someone who knew what had been going on in the Ministry of Finance. On being told that only Ani and Oronsaye knew what had happened, Obasanjo appointed Oronsaye his Senior Special Assistant. He was later made Principal Secretary to the President; and when the list of new Permanent Secretaries was sent to Obasanjo for approval, it was said that the former president inserted Oronsaye's name in biro. Later, President Umaru Yar'adua, himself for want of advice, made Oronsaye the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.

Perhaps, by his own reckoning, he went to work; but in the reckoning of those who knew, it was on a rampage that he went. He succeeded in creating much uncertainty and was himself enveloped by uncertainty of the worst kind, what with questions to answer on his purported qualifications.

More than a year ago, a non-governmental organization, Coalition for True Transparency and Good Governance in Nigeria, charged that all Oronsaye's additional qualifications were fraudulent and called for an investigation into the matter, asserting that he didn't have the B.Sc. or MBA or the ACCA that he claimed he had. Since then Oronsaye hadn't been able to say from which schools and universities he obtained these qualifications or when.

Records at the Career Management Office at the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation show that he had claimed that he had a B.Sc., an MBA and ACCA; but in filing his Record of Service Form, Oronsaye seemed to have forgotten that he had the B.Sc. because he didn't list it; and instead of ACCA, he listed ACA, and obviously these are by no means the same. He had to date not been able to produce even a photocopy of any of the certificates.

To our knowledge, no investigation has been made into these allegations by the government; and the only response Oronsaye cared to make over these grave allegations by the coalition was to say, through one Tope Ajakaiye, then a deputy director of public relations in his office, that the accusations were just too ridiculous for him to respond.

So, let us see just what exactly it is that was too ridiculous for him to answer. He claimed to have a B.Sc. The nation would like to know in which discipline he got the bachelors degree and from which institution and in which year. The only university he claimed to have attended--as per his Staff Record Form--was the University of Calabar in 1993. You couldn't get a Bachelor of Science degree after one year's study; and if he received his B.Sc. in 1993, when did he get the MBA that he listed in 1995? Which one did he have in 1995: the ACCA of UK or the ACA of Nigeria or does he hold both?

Checks in the ICAN Membership Year Book up to 1998 show that there are only two Oronsayes with ACA in the country--one Victor Edosa Oronsaye, with Membership No. 9878 who graduated on April 25, 1996, and Stevenson Idele Oronsaye with Membership No. 11428 who graduated July 30, 1998. There is no Stephen Osagiede Oronsaye on ICAN register. Oronsaye should please come out and tell the nation from where he got his ACA and the answers to those other questions. If he doesn't, it is not the queries that will appear too ridiculous to answer; it is his silence that, in the circumstance, will be most ludicrous.

Since Obasanjo is no longer in office, perhaps it should now be the turn of President Jonathan to tell the nation whether his own goal also, in tandem with that of Oronsaye, has all along been to destroy the civil service on the one hand and empty it of Northern presence on the other. Jonathan's long and loud silence over the litany of atrocities committed by Oronsaye would signify consent; and his decision to create a committee for Oronsaye after he had absconded from an earlier and even more important one would indicate official endorsement for all the bureaucratic atrocities that he had been perpetrating. Not even ignorance of proper procedure could be an answer or acceptable excuse for the government, much as it was now obvious to all that they had no experience in running a government or anything as complex or sophisticated. If he had or cared about the unity of this country, Jonathan would have long ago censured Oronsaye.

But instead of censuring him, Jonathan appointed him a member of the Adamu Fika-led Presidential Committee on the Review of the Reform Processes in the Nigerian Public Service. From the committee's terms of reference, this was not an assignment to which Oronsaye could meaningfully contribute; and, not surprisingly, he hadn't attended even a single session of the committee; and he hadn't thought it necessary to tell anyone why. If he feared exposing his ignorance of service matters before a giant like Adamu Fika, the proper thing would have been to honourably resign.

And after this episode, no serious government would have had anything to do with Oronsaye; but instead of censuring him for the destruction of the civil service then and for insubordination now, the government took out the most important term of reference of the Fika committee that he refused to attend and created another committee--Technical Committee to Restructure and Rationalize Federal Government Parastatals and Agencies for Optimal Management of National Resources--around it and made Oronsaye chairman.

Again not unexpectedly, this assignment of restructuring and rationalizing the nation's parastatals too is not being carried out with knowledge of service matters or with experience or with openness or with accountability, much less understanding that what he is supposed to be doing is part of a greater whole. This is because he doesn't know and those who put him there know less and don't care.

via:  Auwal Bala Muhammad