In these difficult economic times, and in these times of great change, there is nothing that we need more in Nigeria than a highly skilled and innovative workforce. The abundance of human capital (180 million people) is only as good as the quality of that capital, and our public service as an important part of our society needs to create a culture of learning and innovation if Nigeria is to achieve its strategic goals. My theory is that in a country that has been public sector-led since independence, we may need to get the public service thinking and acting better if the rest of society is going to take a cue. In as much as I deeply believe that we need a private-sector led economy, I must confess that without a strong and virile public sector, any attempts at private sector development may be futile. There are some fundamental and historical challenges that have bedevilled the public service – but perhaps the most impactful is the culture of “training as a perk” that has become pervasive in the service, and how successive leaders (even those with a private sector background) have allowed this culture to fester.
When I think about the challenges of capacity building in the public service, I am particularly saddened by a story someone told me about a training that directorate-level level staff of a parastatal attended in the USA. It was a very technical subject area and according to him it was one of the best courses he attended, Unfortunately, most of his colleagues did not agree with him because their repeated insistence to the workshop organizers to include an I”PAD” (tablet computer) as part of the workshop materials fell on deaf ears. According to him, upon their return to Nigeria, the dissatisfied workshop delegates wrote a damaging report on the trainer and the training – and further runs of the training were cancelled. What was painful according to him was that the American-based organizers had actually succumbed to their complaints and pre-ordered a number of IPADs for the next set of delegates they were expecting. Since the course had a negative review, the 20 IPADs ordered had to be returned – hopefully with minimal losses for the organizers.
Someone else told us a story about how they finished a course in Lagos for a group of Abuja based public servants and at the point of giving out the certificates, the trainer was told to change the venue to Dubai – apparently, it was a Dubai course – travel allowances and international ticket fares had been provided and “chopped”, so a certificate that bore “Lagos” was just not going to “cut it”.
Finally, a pregnant lady in Abuja was very upset with her new boss who removed her name from the delegates for a three week course in Lagos. She was upset due to the fact that she would lose out on the travel allowances for three weeks, while he was naïvely and quite rightly concerned that a lady so far gone in pregnancy should not have to risk her life and that of her baby on such a long and strenuous trip away from home.
These three true-life stories underscore what the culture of learning is unfortunately in a number of public service institutions in Nigeria and this negative culture has also permeated the private sector too – the culture of training as a perk, i.e. the real reason why people go to training is because they are entitled to it, and because of the perks associated with it. So, people wait each year for their “turn” to attend some fancy overseas training – not to learn, not to drive change or innovation, but just to get their travel allowances, do some shopping and save some foreign exchange. To be honest, there is nothing wrong in having some time off work, taking a break, earning some extra money, but the core focus should be on the learning and not on these extras. Moving away from this culture requires a significant paradigm shift from what we are already accustomed to, and sometimes new leaders in the public service succumb to the pressures from within and yield to this culture, just to keep the boys “happy”. Training thus becomes an entitlement or a reward for being a good boy, and so rather than have a real transformative effect on the person and organization, the only thing that is transformed is the person’s ego, wallet and wardrobe.
As far as I am concerned the people who are most culpable in perpetuating this culture are those “private sector chaps” that are appointed as Chief Executives of Public Institutions who are meant to know better, and do better. Unfortunately, because they didn’t arrive at those positions out of a purely meritocratic selection process (see my article: “A Few Good Men”, Businessday, 24 March, 2016), they yield to the status quo and perpetuate this culture of training for perks. As we expect the change in baton at many public institutions in the weeks and months ahead, and the release of the “cash-backing” for the budget, my sincere prayer is that the newly appointed Chief Executives as well as the old ones will try to create a culture of learning, change and innovation in the public service and move beyond the mediocrity of “training as a perk”.
Omagbitse Barrow
