Former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka has expressed that Nigeria should not pursue federal character and quota system at the expense of merit.
He stated this while speaking at an event organised by Nextier and Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) in Abuja on Friday.
He stated that it is “corruption” for someone to occupy an office in government on the basis of federal character and not on merit.
“It is an aberration that we have introduced in Nigeria, someone that score 15 percent is entering into a place where people are scoring 95 percent. It is the worst of all crime, it is biggest corruption that is in Nigeria and what can destroy the Nigeria Public Service,” he said.
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Chidoka also blamed the slow reform of Nigeria’s civil service on federal character.
He, opined that civil servants “throw out” reforms when the politician supervising them leaves office.
He said civil servants should be recruited based on merit since they outlive ministers in service.
According to him, ministers need to work with civil servants because they understand the service better.
“Civil Servants live in eternity, they have the patience to wait for the tenure of politicians to expire and get back to doing whatever they want and throw out whatever reform,” he said.