My first executive order will be on civil service reform – AP’s ​​Chris Imumolen

Accord Party (AP) presidential candidate, Professor Christopher Imumolen said he will make wholesale reform in the country’s civil service his topmost priority if elected.

The flagbearer said the civil service has failed to live up to its constitutional role as the engine room of the government as it wallows in indolence and corruption.

Imumolen noted that reform of the structure would make it more attuned to the demands of an incoming reformist government like the one he intends to run.

“Any government that wishes to fully deliver on its pre-election promises must not overlook the role the service could play because it is are the oil that lubricates the engines of government.

“The civil service as presently constituted cannot fully fulfill its constitutional role of making government work effectively because of age-long habits that need to be curbed.

“A civil service populated by workers who got there on a man-know-man basis; a civil service where indolence and official corruption is the order of the day cannot make any government succeed.

“If I get the people’s mandate to become president, I’ll do all in my power to ensure that that status quo doesn’t remain.

“We will review the process of recruitment into the service. We will end the era of file-carrying and institute a proper system to ensure transparency and accountability in the running of government business.

“We are going to fully digitalise the whole civil service structure to make it more effective and result-oriented.

“Staff would be made to undergo computer training and retraining to bring them to the level we want them to be in the new regime of prompt and efficient service delivery.

“In my time as president, it will no longer be business as usual. On patriotic and progressive-minded persons who have the overall interest of Nigeria at heart will be allowed to work in the civil service,” Imumolen vowed.