Any regular reader of my column would have observed my repeated emphasis on Nigeria’s failure to adopt the culture of merit – putting round pegs in round holes – in recruiting individuals into the public service. Securing a public service appointment depends on whom you know – favouritism. So pervasive is this trend that its suffocating stench is severely felt in all facets and levels of public recruitment, be it in ministries, agencies, or institutions of learning. Even worse, this culture has become so entrenched that we no longer view it as corruption, which it undeniably is, and are seemingly unable to see its destructive impact on our society.
But notwithstanding how lightly we choose to view this anomaly, we cannot escape the profound and far-reaching damage it entails. Pointedly, failure to elevate merit over favouritism in the process of recruiting those who drive our public institutions implies that we may have persistently deprived those institutions of a critical element they require to function healthily and grow – competent human resources. Acquisition and retention of competent human resources are not something that comes by chance; they are a product of deliberate policy formulation and implementation that prioritises competence over cronyism. When such an intentional institutional process is lacking, then recruiting the right persons can only happen by accident. Clearly, this amounts to gambling with the well-being of such institutions and the destiny of the nation.
Nations that become great do not attain their status by toying with processes as sensitive as public recruitment. Their approach shows their total recognition that competent human resources are key to progress.
After World War II, the United States government, through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), implemented the historic Operation Paperclip in the quest to enrich its science and technology sector with the best human resources available in the world. The just-ended war had revealed how advanced the defeated Nazi Germany was in various areas of science including rocket technology and aviation, and the US saw an opportunity here. A top secret project, Operation Paperclip sought to recruit German scientists, engineers, and technicians who had worked for the Nazi regime by offering them exemption from trial for war crimes on the condition that they become US citizens and make their scientific knowledge available to the nation. As history can testify, it turned out to be a remarkably visionary project as the recruited scientists, engineers, and technicians significantly strengthened the United States, especially under the hostile climate of its Cold War rivalry with the USSR. Worthy of particular mention is the legendary rocket engineer, Wernher von Braun, who worked with NASA and led the development of Saturn V, the titanic rocket that fired the Apollo 11 astronauts to the historic landing on the moon in 1969, confirming the United States’ pre-eminence in space exploration over its main rival, the USSR. Besides, German scientists and engineers played a key role in the development of the US’s enormous capabilities in long-range missile armament.
Operation Paperclip is just one notable example of how optimisation of human resources is ideally a product of deliberate planning and action as against an adventure in favouritism and hoping for the best. Our nation Nigeria has not demonstrated the sort of seriousness that can compare with what great nations do to put round pegs in round holes. Israel, for instance, recognized the enormity of the challenge it faces from enemies on all sides, and implemented very strict procedures in recruiting persons into its intelligence agency, MOSSAD. The recruitment follows a very rigorous process where no favouritism is tolerated – as this will be very costly. Apart from advertised recruitments, personnel are also recruited from serving military officers or from any other sector – but strictly based on verifiable competence and other characteristics. Compare this to what obtains in Nigeria; despite the existential threat posed by insurgency to our nation, recruitment into intelligence bodies like the NIA and the SSS is yet to shake off the lure of favouritism even in the face of the urgency of the task facing them. Like with every public agency, senior officers are able to influence recruitment of their children while politicians still pull the usual strings to get in whomsoever they want. I have personally seen this happen. We play with every damn thing in this country. There must be a limit to gambling with the destiny of the nation.
We have succeeded in turning our public institutions into fiefdoms where influential individuals acting like feudal lords treat public offices as an inheritance wherein their children must come to take their place. The madness, quite dangerously, also extends to institutions of learning where, like other public institutions, it is not uncommon to see spouses, children, siblings, and in-laws all working in one place simply because they have someone within who can pull strings. There is no denying the fact that quality suffers greatly when public recruitment is based on family affiliation.
My experience searching for jobs in the private sector indeed opened my eyes to why the public sector will continue to suffer. The two newspapers I worked with in Lagos and the other two I once attempted to secure a job at in the same state subjected me to what I consider a rigorous test of capability. One of the two I worked with in the Southeast equally did something reasonably rigorous while conducting the selection. In all these instances, I sat to take written tests that indeed tested my knowledge and skill as a writer and newsman before oral interviews followed. Contrast this experience with my current appointment in a public institution; I attended what looked like an interview, but in all honesty, it was nowhere near the rigour expected of a recruitment process for an academic position in a university. A friend who attended a recruitment interview in one of the prominent private universities in the southwest about the same time narrated a different experience. Apart from two written tests, they were subjected to very challenging oral tests including being given three random topics on any issue on earth to choose one and address the panel on it (with no time to prepare) and participating in a group discussion with other applicants on an issue as determined by the panelists – all aimed at testing one’s versatility, articulation, and intellectual confidence. After this – as now done by many private sector employers – social media handles of the applicants were scrutinized to see what they have been posting, the kind of activities they get involved in, the sort of conversations they engage in, etc. – which all give some insight into the extent to which the person’s dispositions, interest, and competence align with the job they are seeking. (This is significant as it allows the employer to see the applicant in their normal everyday life as against the often choreographed job interview contexts. For instance, it may be a red flag if someone seeking a position as a university scholar has a Facebook page filled with all sorts of posts with nothing in them to suggest that the person is knowledgeable, knowledge-loving, and inclined to intellectual engagement – such a person may be seeking the job not for the love of it but as a meal ticket.)
The way public recruitment is handled in Nigeria is the reason we hear all sorts of outrageous – even sometimes unbelievably ridiculous – tales about a senior civil servant who cannot write a memorandum, a secondary school teacher who cannot spell a common word, a lecturer who cannot communicate in class, a police officer who cannot decipher information in a motor vehicle document, etc. Many years ago, a friend’s father working as a driver at the Federal Ministry of Defence annex in Lagos told me how his boss could not write a memo and was relying on his subordinates including himself, the driver!
Evolutionary biology teaches us that living things survive their erratic environment because they adapt to circumstances including through biological mechanisms that assimilate what is helpful and fight off the harmful ones. These are body defences, a self-preservation mechanism. Our public institutions, as far as recruitment is concerned, are not wired towards self-preservation – their recruitment culture represents more a risk of self-destruction than a means of self-preservation.
Crucially, this recruitment culture has wider implications for society in terms of the sort of values propagated. What is propagated when people get employed not because of their competence but because of whom they know is not hard work and excellence but laziness and mediocrity. Telling young people to work hard in their education and other endeavours is an effort in futility when in practice all they see is nepotism and favouritism as the major route to career success. This is one of the key lessons one can glean from “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” a seminal essay by French philosopher and theorist, Louis Althusser, where he penetratingly showed the power of institutional practices in entrenching ideology and culture. What institutions practice is more effective in building values than what they preach.
One of my bosses during my active journalism days used to paint a scenario where a son of a poor and lowly Okonkwo travels from his remote village to Abuja to attend a government job interview and returns with news of success. Then he invites his friends and relatives to drink with him telling them, “please celebrate with me, I went to Abuja for a job interview and got the job when I have nobody to speak for me. I got the job simply because of my hard work and what I can offer.” These few words, no doubt, will come with an irresistible inspirational power that will fire up the hunger for success through hard work in these otherwise despondent village young men. The message will sink in and reverberate with profound effect across the village – even so with greater potency than all the admonitions and preaching long coming from various quarters including the pulpit. Action speaks louder than words. Practice resonates louder than one thousand admonitions.
To be fair, those who designed Nigeria’s institutional framework regarding public service recruitment are evidently not oblivious of the importance of merit-based hiring. This reflects in the Public Service Rules which provide for a competitive recruitment process. However, as with most of our laws and regulations, implementation has been largely on paper. This has resulted in our dear nation not just failing to ensure only the best hands occupy public service positions but also disincentivising hard work and excellence in favour of cronyism and mediocrity.
Unfortunately and quite inconceivably, this has never been a key issue of discourse ahead of the 2027 elections or any other past elections in the country. As of today, we are still locked in conversations over the chances and fate of individual politicians in their efforts to secure power next year. Issues are not yet being discussed. We need this discussion including – and this is paramount – how our next set of leaders can reverse the culture of nepotism and favouritism in public recruitment.
Henry Chigozie Duru teaches journalism and mass communication at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria.
