President Muhammadu Buhari acted swiftly on Monday, by ordering the immediate disengagement of Abdulrasheed Maina, from the nation’s civil service.
Maina,a former Chairman of the Pension Reforms Task Team, is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for allegedly spearheading a massive fraud in the Pension sector, that he was drafted in to sanitize.
Post-Nigeria gathered that Buhari’s swift action on the matter drew different reactions from many Nigerians.
While many have described it as a welcome development, others say the harm had already been done, as Maina ought not to have been reinstated in the first place.
Yet another group of Nigerians feels that Buhari may have breached the Civil Service Rules, by unilaterally ordering for Maina’s sack.
According to the Public Service Rules: “The power to dismiss and to exercise disciplinary control over Officers in the Federal Public Service, is vested in the Federal Civil Service Commission. This power may be delegated to any member of the Commission, or any Officer in the Federal Civil Service.”
The rulebook explained that an Officer’s appointment could be terminated on the basis of acts of “misconduct”, which include among other things: “Failure to keep records; Unauthorized removal of public records; Dishonesty; Negligence; Refusal to take/carry out lawful instruction from superior officers; Malingering; Insubordination”, etc.
“Where a Tribunal of Inquiry set up by the Government makes recommendations of a disciplinary nature on an Officer, the Federal Civil Service Commission shall not act on such recommendations, until it has called upon the affected Officer to reply to the allegations made against him/her by the Tribunal of Inquiry”, the rule book states.
“If the Officer refuses or neglects to reply to the allegations within a reasonable time or at all, the Federal Civil Service Commission or its agent shall proceed to accept and enforce the recommendations of the Tribunal of Inquiry and take such disciplinary action against the Officer as it shall deem appropriate.
“…If as a result, the Commission decides that the allegation is proved, it may inflict any other punishment upon the officer such as reduction in rank, withholding or deferment of increment or otherwise.
“In serious cases which are likely to result in dismissal, the Officer should be given access to any such document(s) or report(s) used against him/her, and he/she should be asked to state in his/her defence that he/she has been given access to documents.
“The Officer shall be called upon to state in writing, within the period specified in the query any grounds, upon which he/she relies to exculpate himself/herself;
“If the Officer submits his/her representations and the Federal Civil Service Commission is not satisfied that he/she has exculpated himself/herself, and considers that the Officer should be dismissed, it shall take such action accordingly. Should the Officer however, fail to furnish any representations within the time fixed, the Commission may take such action against the Officer, as it deems appropriate:
“If upon considering the report of the Board, the Commission is of the opinion that the Officer does not deserve to be dismissed, but that the proceedings disclosed grounds for requiring him/her to retire, the Commission shall without further proceedings, direct accordingly.
“All disciplinary procedures must commence and be completed within a period of 60 days, except where it involves criminal cases.”
It is very difficult to say Buhari was wrong or right to have swiftly ordered for Maina’s disengagement, while still expecting an explanation from the Head of Service. On the surface, it looks easy to say he breached Service Rules.
However, the other side of the coin, is that Maina’s reinstatement itself was illegitimate. The last legally acceptable action on Maina, was his dismissal during former President, Goodluck Jonathan’s regime. On that basis, it could be said that Buhari only restored the status quo, in which case it would be hard to fault the President.
If anyone has a case to answer here, it has to be the Offices of the Interior Ministry, Head of Service, the Department of States Service, and the Civil Service Commission, for alleged complicity in Maina’s illegal reinstatement.
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