Lord, Does This Old Lady Know That Things Are Tough?

Dear Father,

Does this Old Lady know that things are getting very tough in this village and that, up to now, vendors are not able to receive their pay? Is she not hearing the cries of the people? Hasn’t she heard that people are just opening their businesses and closing them without customers saying, “How much?” Or is she not aware that the number of people finding it difficult to put food on the table is increasing?

My son, haven’t you heard that everything has been placed on hold at the village money house? They say the new man who took over has put a halt to everything. In fact, it is said that the man is on a house-cleaning mission before anybody can start receiving money from that place.

But, Father, don’t they know that they are holding up the village’s economy and slowing down transactions? For your son’s sake, Father, this is not a change of one rule to another; this is a continuity regime for Christ’s sake, so there is no need for somebody to behave like they are trying to audit the past administration before releasing the entire village.

Wait, Father, are they also telling us that all the captains who were serving in the various departments during the first round are suddenly corrupt, or is it a way of finding work for friends and allies? The news the village people are getting from that place is terrible to the ears. So they want to tell us that everybody who comes in will bring his own people to occupy the whole building before anything can go on?

But ehn da your own brother there? Why you talking to him like that?

Father, the place that man is right now, that na brother thing we doing here. If I don’t speak out and anything goes wrong, when I talking somewhere people will even insult me, saying you should have advised your brother.

The thing my brother wants to try is not correct. Period. You see, when the book people say continuity, it does not only mean where you stop that is where the other man must come and continue. It also means keeping the experienced people to the place to help direct the new ones. But if you come and take all the old people who know the in and out of the place from there, all because you want to bring in your own people, then that is bad – it simply means putting square pigs in round holes.

Already, there are some of his team members who have questionable credentials. Their ability to perform is even far more scary than their credentials, and then you want to bring in other people as what?

You see, Father, the reason things always get messy in our village is that we don’t create technocrats. I was telling a friend the last time that at every ministry and agency of our village, we should have experienced village workers considered as the main people who know the in and out of the places. In village administration, the book people called them the chief Civil Servants; they are the chief directors.

These people are devoid of politics. They are there to help the new comers, like my brother and his team, to understand the workings of the place. They are always there, when old government leaves and new ones come. For instance, let’s assume that the way the Old Lady first round finished, all the Lieutenants who were heading the various ministries and agencies should have left immediately, while the chief directors take over.

So, let’s assume that another group of people were to take over from the Old Lady, the transitional teams at the ministries and agencies would be headed by chief directors; they would head the ministries and agencies until the new people appoint their own political heads and then the chief directors revert to their positions. So these people are not just people to shift from one place to another by heart.

Once they performed their jobs over the years professionally, they are protected, but to just come and move them around because you want to, if that other news is true, then my brother should stop because continuing with such objective will kill the very spirit of building a viable civil service here.

And, Father, it appears that the Old Lady is not listening to me these days, because this idea of people carrying their own loyalists to occupy civil servant positions whenever they are appointed is not good. The village government is headed by a team, so I don’t see any reason why rotated captains will always want to carry their tails with them, especially when some of those tails are not competent enough to occupy those new places. And worse of all, at the money house, this is a place where you don’t just put anybody.

Me, I rest my case oo, Father. It is the Old Lady’s call; she can eat her cake anyway she wants, but she remains accountable to the village. She is also my Old Lady and, like her, I am not hiding anything from my brother, so it is my duty, Father, to say the hard truth about the way things are going in our village.

Your please release the economy. It is frozen!!!