Governor of Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke, has accused former military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida of “destroying” the Nigerian Civil Service.
The Governor gave this view, while delivering a keynote address to mark the State’s Civil Service Day, held at the Cultural Centre Complex in Calabar, the state capital.
According to him, IBB’s implementation of his Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, during his eight year rule destroyed the civil service built as far back as 1934.
“The civil service remains the hope of the vast majority of Nigerians and it has direct impact on the success or failure of any administration. But in just eight years, the Structural adjustment programme instituted by the Babagida administration destroyed the values, dignity of civil service which have painstakingly been built since 1934″.
He stated that since the exit of the military, succeeding regimes had made futile efforts to rebuild the service.
Imoke said that the ambition of most Nigerians in the past was to become a top civil servant as “such was a guarantee for a good standard of living then and it also afforded many to sponsor their children to schools, build houses, and buy cars.”
“Even the Youth Corps members on passing out would think of buying a Volkwagen Igala for a start. My father was a civil servant. My mother was a civil servant and when I was growing up I wanted to join the diplomatic service so the civil servant should be celebrated because they are the ones who are daily in touch with our people”.
The Governor further tasked civil servants in the state to uphold high proficiency, professional integrity, accountability and avoid corruption and complacency.
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