On the viral video by a Doctor and thoughts on the Training of Civil Servants 

On the viral video by a Doctor and thoughts on the Training of Civil Servants 

By Nestor Udoh

The civil service, by the time I left had many forms of training for civil servants. The most popular were in-service training and study leave with, or with without pay.

In in-service training, you are permitted to go to school while receiving your full pay. You may, or may not receive additional allowances.

In study leave with pay, you are as well permitted to go to school with pay but no allowances.

In study leave without pay, you are permitted to go to school, but as soon as you leave, your salary and allowances are stopped.

To grant permission to undertake any of these, is at the discretion or magnanimity of the government who employs on behalf of the people.

Many civil servants today take going to school while working in the civil service for granted. It has not always been so.

During the military regime, no civil servant in Akwa Ibom State was permitted to leave his duty post for any form of study.

I had passed my primary fellowship exams, reading from my duty post at General Hospital, Ikot Ekpene in 2001 but could not go for my consultancy training because if I left, my salary would be stopped, and my young family would suffer.

Those who braved it and left like my colleagues, Dr Aniefiok Umoiyoho and Dr Victor Ette had stories of woe to tell, managing to scale through the training. Still, after all these, they came back and continued working in the same civil service. They later resigned and joined the university of Uyo Teaching Hospital where they rose to become professors in their different fields.

When Dr Nath Adiakpan became the chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, he briefed Governor Victor Attah on the need to train civil servants, and to the eternal glory of his regime, he lifted the ban on all forms of training in the civil service.

That was how, in 2004, I dusted up my primary fellowship and went back to Teaching hospital for my fellowship training, having been granted in-service training award by the government. After training, I came back to the civil service.

Going to school with sponsorship by the government is an agreement, written or unwritten.

You are expected to come back and continue serving the people who paid for your training with your new skills, on your duty post.

This is not to say that no civil servant can disengage from the service after training. But there are procedures, clearly spelt out in the hand book on civil service regulations to be followed.

These procedures were followed by my colleagues, even though government did not pay for their training, and that’s why their exits were seamless.

And what were those procedures?

You apply for resignation through your head of department and the permanent secretary to the Civil Service Commission.

Until you get a written approval from the commission, you cannot be said to have been properly disengaged because your application may, or may not be approved.

This same procedure applies to even retirement from the civil service service.

I have watched a viral video made by a medical doctor, an employee of government where he explained his position on why government should not question the rationale for his exit after he was permitted by government to go to school on full salary.

I do not have all the facts as to whether he went through all the procedures on resignation as outlined above. I suspect he did not because if he did, government would not have asked any questions.

But the question I want to ask is: when did the social media become an avenue for civil servants to redress grievances against their employers after I left the service? When did disengagement from the service cease to be a written administrative procedure?

I want to believe that the civil service hand book is still available to civil servants to read and follow. If not, the Head of Civil Service should produce and distribute more copies so that no civil servant would say he didn’t know because when the chips are down, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

© Nestor Udoh, retired from Akwa Ibom State civil service as a Dean, College of Permanent Secretaries.