Dr. Adamu Mohammed Fika, 73, was born in Fika town in the present day Yobe state where he started his primary education and later proceeded to Barewa College between 1956 and 1960 and later did his Higher School Certificate at the Keffi Government College. Thereafter, in the course of his academic pursuit, Fika was admitted at Makerere University to study history. He bagged the Bachelor Degree of Arts in History after his sojourn at that university between 1963 and 1966 and he was to join the staff of Ahmadu Bello University as a lecturer at Kano Campus, now Bayero University. As an outstanding staff of ABU for a total of eight years, the university sponsored him for a post graduate programme in London between 1968 and 1972 where he completed his PHD in History, specialising in Kano History.
Fika resumed back to duty at Bayero University, Kano, but resigned from the university service in December 1974 and joined the services of the defunct North-Eastern state in present day North-East with six states. Not long after that, that the new states were created and he found himself in the service of the old Borno state from 1976 to 1986. Throughout those years, he rose to the position of Permanent Secretary in the old Borno State.
In November 1986, Fika transferred his service to the Federal Civil Service where he was deployed as Secretary of Administration of Finance in the Federal Ministry of Work in 1987. In August of the same year,, Fika was redeployed by the government to the National Electoral Commission as a Commissioner and he was there until 1989. Fika went back to the presidency and was made the Director of Constitutional Matters.
This time coincided with the time when government decided to create two political parties and Fika was made the Administrative Secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) while a senior colleague of his, late Mr. Okodu was made the Administrative Secretary of the National Republican Convention (NRC). They concluded the job in August 1990 after conducting the first annual delegates convention.
Fika retired in 1999 but was recalled as a contract officer at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Jos where he served as a directing staff and rose to the position of acting Director of Studies for the six years he served before returning back to Abuja. Owing to his academic feats and administrative ingenuity, Fika was from his retirement found suitable for appointment as the Chairman of National Assembly Service Commission and was inaugurated in September 2013 for a tenure of five years.
When Time Nigeria’s editorial team led by the Editor, AbdulRahman Aliagan, visited Fika for this interview, it was somewhat of an intellectual excursion into the past.
The Septuagenarian spoke on the mandate of the commission, his achievements within two years of assuming duty as well as efforts to ensure that the commission maintained the policy of equal representation among the six geopolitical zones of the country among many other issues of national concern. Excerpts.
With the benefit of your vast experience, what can you say is the bane of Nigeria’s development?
The biggest problem is frequency in the change of policies and that is the main reason we have not moved forward. But since the 1960s, we have been talking of water, we have been talking about roads, we have been talking about education and we have not solved any of them. In any of them we cannot claim to have scored appreciable success from independence till date. We have not disposed off one, so we cannot bring in a new issue because the basic ones are still very much with us. This is very unfortunate for our country. In spite of these huge resources, in spite of these talents we still cannot tackle and solve the basic problem of living of a large population. It is really a shame.
If you are to advise the government what would be the priority in the socioeconomic development of the country?
The most important thing to me is to harness our resources and develop a road map of say 15 to 30 years where all hands will be on deck to tackle one problem after the other rather than filtering our images without achieving tangible result. In the past, after independence when there was development planning things were much better but now everybody is doing his own thing.
For example in a place like Yobe when this basic problem was still there, they are talking of building international airport. In a situation where people have no water to drink, the schools are dilapidated, the hospitals cannot serve the people, you are now thinking of building an international airport. In spite of the insurgency and the destruction of lives and properties, the general insecurity, how do you fit in a airport? We lack planning, and prioritization should be done much better. The general need should come first and the cosmetics need should be the last.
What has been your achievement so far as the Chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission?
So far in two years we have been giving a lot of input into the National Assembly, both the Senate and the House of Representatives when they were revising the National Assembly Service Act. The Act was enacted last year and this has given us an opportunity to expand the size of the bureaucracy and the career prospects of all staff such that we now have created five Directorates headed by people called Secretaries equivalent to Permanent Secretaries, besides the Clerk to the National Assembly, his Deputy, as well as the Clerk of the Senate, the House of Representatives and their Deputies. These used to be people earning salaries equivalent or higher than that of the permanent secretaries. We have now given the staff additional five positions so in terms of career prospects, staff are now well motivated because they can aspire like their colleagues in the civil service to attain the ranks of the Permanent Secretary if they are good and they are goal getters.
The Act that established the National Assembly Service Commission provides for equal representation of geo-political zones. How is the commission abiding by this?
Yes, the NASC Act 7 of 2001 and its amended version, NASS Act 2014, provide for equal representation of geo-political zones. Even the laws that established the Federal Character Commission and provisions of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria all make it mandatory to reflect federal character in our recruitment exercise. The law is that there should not be preponderance of workers from any geo-political zone of the country to the disadvantage of another zone.
Consequently, the Commission, right from inception, worked out a zoning formula which ensures that every geo-political zone, every state and every local government area in the country is fairly represented in the National Assembly service.
The Commission has even gone ahead to work out a way of getting the best hands from all parts of the federation into the service. So, it is not just enough that we respect federal character. We also insist on merit even while applying the federal character principle.
How are you coping with challenges of job seekers at the National Assembly?
Well, this is a very challenging issue in our country nowadays. Daily you see hundreds of well educated Nigerians who have burning desire to contribute their own quota to national development but there are no vacancies to absorb them. They throng to this office daily with applications for employment, begging you to do something to help them. But our hands are tied in terms of funds and even the number you can absorb. Even if you have the money, you cannot just go on employing endlessly. There is a limit you cannot go beyond.
But to answer your question, we have been coping. We tell them the truth about the situation. Some of them take it in good faith, some try to enlist the help of some people to talk to us but we tell them there is nothing we could do under the circumstance.
Has direct recruitment of Legislative Aides/Assistants helped the performance and productivity of the legislators?
I think Legislative Aides/Assistants are of tremendous help to the lawmakers not only in Nigeria but globally. This is because the process of lawmaking is very tasking. It covers every sphere of life. Now the lawmaker is not and cannot be a specialist in all spheres of life. That is why he needs the assistance of those aides to help him/her research into issues on debate, be it motions or bills. He/she does not just go to the floor of the Senate or House of Representatives and opens his/her mouth to talk. The lawmaker must talk in a way that makes sense so as to contribute to legislations that would engender good governance. And for him/her to do this a legislative aide/assistant must help him/her research into the topic the bill or motion is dealing with. It is the responsibility of the aides to research and prepare a brief on such matters for the lawmaker. It is also the job of the aide/assistant to help the lawmaker gauge the needs and opinions of the lawmaker’s constituents to help him/her have adequate representation of their interests. In fact, legislative aides are invaluable in the democratic project.
Staff welfare is a key ingredient for service delivery. How are your workers faring in this respect?
In this direction, the Commission is trying within its limited resources to ensure that staff welfare is adequately catered for.
For example, the Commission pays the staff salary as at when due. No staff is owed any salary areas. The Commission also caters for the health needs of staff and their families and as well provides bus services free of charge.
How is the Commission doing on the issue of training and retraining of staff?
Well, I will tell you that the Commission is doing very well in the area of capacity building for staff. Every year, we make sure that our staff benefit from training programmes in the country to enhance their capacity on the job. We train them on core areas of administration and legislative bureaucracy as well as each officer’s discipline. Sometimes, we also sponsor them on international training programmes to expose them to international best practices. All these is because we are striving to create a corps of officers that match their counterparts anywhere in the world.
What is the relationship of your Commission with the National Institute of Legislative Studies (NILS)?
Very, very cordial.
Can it be said that the Commission is living up to its billing?
Yes, of course. The Commission is living up to expectation. Prior to the establishment of the Commission in 2001, there was no order in staff management in the service. Staff were deployed from the mainstream civil service and withdrawn or posted out at will. This created a lot of hiccups in the system. But since the inception of the Commission, recruitment, promotion and discipline of staff have been streamlined. That arrangement jeopardized the independence of the legislative service. But mow, the service is autonomous.
Apart from that, there were a lot of problems regarding staff promotion. Most of the officers were stagnated on one position. It took the Commission to clear that anomaly.
Recently, the Commission with the collaboration of stakeholders influenced the National Assembly to amend the existing Act to expand the bureaucracy of the service. That amendment saw to the creation of five directorates and some departments in the service. This has helped us to clear the congestion at the top echelon of the bureaucracy. Aside these, we now handle staff promotion as and when due. We pride ourselves as an institution in Nigeria where there is no stagnation of staff.
What about the challenges confronting the commission?
The main challenge as usual is funding.
