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By December 26th 2022 Barrister. Ayodeji Abiodun Ajiboye, would have spent

exactly 35 years working as a civil servant in Ekiti State. And having reached the
maximum number of years, he will be retiring as a fulfilled man, a diligent civil
servant, and an administrator per excellence, who has earned much respect
from his colleagues and friends. A man who fought tooth and nail to reclaim his
office from unjust removal by former Governor Ayodele Fayose, In this exclusive
interview, the Barrister Ajiboye shares his experiences, principles , advice,
challenges in the civil service, among others. Excerpts:
BY:

Sesan Awobiye

Tell us about yourself and your journey into the civil service as a
permanent secretary.
We thank God for His mercies and for the opportunity that we are alive today
to begin the journey of retirement. I started working with the old Ondo State
Government on the 18th of December 1987, by December 18th, 2022, I would
have worked for the government for 35 years and that is the maximum
number of year that you can work with government. And by the 26th of
December, I will be clocking 60 to reach retirement age. I began working as
an education officer, and before then I had cut my teeth at the University of
Ife, where I got a First Degree in English and a Master's in International
Relations. First Degree in 1986, Master's Degree in 1988 and after two years, I
changed from Education officer to become an administrative officer in 1990.
That is the job I have been doing till date, and I rose through the ranks from a
Level 8 officer to Level 9, to Level 10, to Level 12 up to 16, which is the highest

level you can reach. At my level, and by the grace of God, sometimes, precisely,
December 24 in 2014, I was sworn in by then governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Peter
Ayodele Fayose, as a permanent secretary in Ekiti State. That position I have
been holding till this retirement age.
What are the highlights of your upbringing?
I am from Ilupeju-Ekiti in Oye Local Government , my mother, late, Cecilia
Olorunfemi from Oye Town from a royal family, and my dad, also from Ilupeju,
was a strict disciplinarian, he brought us up, quite a lot of us, including
siblings, children of his brothers and sisters, we grew up knowing ourselves at
the Wesley College Baptist School,Elekuro, Ibadan. From there we dispersed,
went to schools. My father was a lecturer at the Wesley College then, he
became a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly in Ajasin's time.
Ofcourse, he rose to become a principal member and he retired as a principal
member of Ondo State House of Assembly. He is also late.
What motivated you to change your course?
The truth of the matter is when you left school, the university, the first thing
you want to do is to get a job then, talking of 35 years ago, because the jobs
were not there to be picked. When I first finished in 1985. The jobs were not
there, as a matter of fact, we did some little things on the streets in Akure, we
did public works programme, where we were being paid N200 per month for
special public works, I think it was a Federal government programme just to
give people just coming out then, something to do. There were so many of us.
So the first one that came was the Education officer, of which I was employed
on the 18th of December, which spoke about. Then, we knew that the future
of the service is becoming an administrative officer. In those days, we were
the only administrative officers that could become directors general or
permanent secretaries. These days, things have changed. It was that kind of
set of people that could become permanent secretaries. That was the doyen of
the service then, that was places you could see wonderful names. So, they
urged, as a graduate to cross over and become administrative officer. Of
course, you have to go through some rigorous exercises, you go through
ASCON, there is an examination called ASCON, Administrative Staff College of

Nigeria, it is still there, When you passed, you go through interviews, you go
through commissioners interview which you don't have in other places, it is
only then the you have been well burnt like gold, you now feel that you have
arrived. That aspect of the job was one to the things that encouraged us. Then
the element of law. The issue of law came as a happenstance. In 1996, Ekiti
State was created. Before then, I just returned from a technical programme, I
went for TAC of the ministry of foreign affairs , I was there for two years. I was
in Equatorial Guinea, that was 1994 to 1996. Those are the time one enjoys
emoluments of Federal government. We were paid in Dollars. When we came
back, I came in 1996, and that was when the state was created. So we were
deployed all of us-Ekiti people, either by force or by whatever, we were
deployed, those were those days, to Ekiti, and Ekiti happened to be our
fatherland, a state that is most homogeneous in all the states of the federation.
So in 1996, we were deployed here, October 1, we came here and there were a
lots things to be done in the state. It was a new state, a virgin land, so many
things, few offices, most staff were under the trees working, and there was
already an existing university in Ado-Ekiti, which was then, UNAD, University
of Ado-Ekiti, and the urge for additional education came, and I had friends in
the university, they encouraged me, come on, come and take some three-year
course and enjoy yourself in reading law and of course, I was qualified, I did
that, and quite interesting. The current head of service, Bamidele Agbede, we
were in the same class, and we did the course for three years, and by the grace
of God, it was a good one, we enjoyed it. And of the things that made me
enjoyed it very well then, was the position of the vice chancellor then, was
Professor Oyebode, one of the foremost professors of Jurisprudence in
Nigeria, he is in the University of Lagos. He would get to the class as a vice
chancellor and a professor at 7.a.m, to teach Jurisprudence for the next two
hours, and if you are late, you cannot enter, you cannot come in, and we
enjoyed it, that is one the things I cannot forget in the aspect of that
programme and after that, Law School came beckoning, and I didn't want to
have B.L. and not have L.L.B., so, immediately, I had to go to the Law School,
and I went to Bwari, Abuja for the one-year Law School, and today, I am
grateful to God that I am a barrister at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

What was teaching like during your time?
In those days there were not private schools. It was public schools. I went to
public school, Wesley College, Elekuro Ibadan, and as a child of a lecturer, you
can understand, it was a very wonderful experience, teaching and learning,
teaching and learning were taking place. It is not a kind of thing you just think
about where people do what they call root memory. You are prepared for
exams, this days, I think, because you want to do S.S.C.E , J.S.S.C.E. or whatever,
you are prepared and taught to learn what will come out in the exam, not the
experience of learning that will continue to be part of you life, this days, I
think that is the difference. Those days, there were lots of discipline. I
remember my secondary school days at Ibadan, of course I started from C.A.C.,
Aperin-Oniyire, Ibadan, and I went from there to Bishop Philips, like I said,
son of a teacher, I went to Bishop Philips Academy, Iwo Road, when my father
was transferred , when my father was transferred again to Owo, because at
that time, Ondo State had been created, we had to come to Owo again, he was
vice principal, I had to go to Methodist High School, Owo, that is where I
finished my secondary school, like I said there were lots of discipline, I
remember the kind of experience we had, your teacher, your teacher, anybody
can cane you, but I don't think it could happen these days. If anybody canes
my daughter or my son, I will go to that school and harass the teacher, I will
tell them, I take my children away from this school. That is the situation these
days.
Why do we find ourselves in such situation?
Like I said, one, discipline, two, people are becoming more enlightened. We
come from a background that is African, a very Africanist background, for
example, when I was growing up, like I just said, every other child of my
father, of his brothers and sisters, they lived with him. From my own
experience, I wouldn't allow my child to go and live with anybody. I will never
allow it, you stay in your dad's house, I can focus and monitor my child, these
days, people don't take so much care about their children. You won't be
surprised that at age 1 or age 2, children are already put in boarding house,
they have parents , but they are already in boarding house at age 3 or 4, that is

the trend and I think we are becoming more conversant, more concerned, or
more attached to foreign cultures.
Now, you are a barrister, why did you study Law?
Law is a different experience entirely. it is a very different experience, as a
matter of fact, I thank God I studied Law, maybe if I didn't study it , I would
have become a different person entirely. Let me place it on record, Fayose, as
he then was, as the governor of Ekiti State, made me a permanent secretary in
December 24th, 2014, by 2015, for no clear reason, maybe because somebody
went and lied or told him a story, he just called head of service then, go and
retire Ajiboye, because he felt he had the power to hire and fire and of course I
was retired in 2018, 30th March, yes, I got the letter. But I knew by the
position of this document that he doesn't have the authority to retire me,
because I have not spent the number of years that I signed for. I am not a
politician, I am a civil servant. I have a tenure to serve and thank God I didn't
have any blemish, and if I am going to be retired, you take me through the
appropriate processes of discipline. You didn't take me to the Civil Service
Commission, you didn't query me. And of course, knowing the position of law
and being a civil matter, I checked all my constitutions, and I took the matter
to court. Like I said it is civil matter, which after three months, becomes a
dead issue. You cannot take it on , unlike criminal cases. I took the matter to
industrial court in Akure, and of course, I was vindicated. He doesn't have the
right, according to the constitution. But there is a section here that says, there
are four exceptions that say, one, the governor shall have power to appoint
secretary to the state government, the head of service, members of the office
of the governor, and permanent secretaries. But there is a provision there,
that says, these people you have power to appoint, and also has the power to
remove them, he must have thought that was the power he has, but there is a
provision below it that says, with all these powers, you can only retire the
S.S.G. that is secretary to the state government , two, your officers that are
assisting you in your administration, but you cannot hire and fire a head of
service, you cannot hire and fire a permanent secretary, I took that to court,
and the court, like I said, vindicated me. Interestingly, by that time, he had lost
election through the election of Eleka, so he had to bring me back to service,

because the court said we should go and settle out of court without any
payment either from him to me, or from me to the government, that
everybody should bear his own cost, so that was how I came back to work. So,
that is the beauty of the law, I wouldn't have had that opportunity, if I didn't
study law. And it became a locus classicus. It has never happened before. If
you look at the document in your hand, it reads a retirement like no other. It
has never happened that a person at that level was retired and reinstated. If
you look at that document again, when he was reinstated, he was also retired
again, almost simultaneously and why, when I was returned, he was going,
when Eleka had lost the election, he knew he was going, I think the then
governor started to make restitution to so many people, with whom he had
overreached his banks, he started to bring them back and I was one of them.
One day he invited me, I said I was in Abuja, he said he wanted to see me, I
said what time, I said I will come tomorrow. I went to him and the man who
lied against me was there. I not mention his name, he was a general manager,
and in my presence, Governor Ayodele Fayose, as he then was , said you have
made me to take a wrong decision about this man, I think that man did
something to him now which I will not reveal, you have made me to take a
wrong decision about this man and before I go, I am going to send you out of
this job, and it was a big issue for that person, he had problem subsequently.
So, that explains the beauty of the elements of the law. Then, he restituted
with me, I was not posted when Fayemi came in October 16 of 2018, they did
posting, I was not posted, they said , you have been retired , I said I was not
retired. Interestingly, the man who became the head of service was my closest
friend, I said I went to court, I had a court case, I had a court judgment, he said
he didn't know, his name is Deji Ajayi, he is now retired too, he is now in
Federal service, he went to Governor Fayemi, he didn't come back after four,
five hours, I waited for him. They met on third day, he wrote me another letter
that I have been retired again. He signed it. I said no, I have a court judgment
that has not been implemented. So we started another journey. Thank God
and I always say it, it is in that document, the then attorney-general and
commissioner for justice, Wale Fapounda, now, S.A.N. we went to him, through
a close friend, we said look at this situation , what a wonderful a man, he just
smiled and said, he said he would look at what he would do. And he went,

because he was so close to Fayemi, and he could give all the advice on legal
issues, he was able to convince the then governor, and in convincing him, I
was reinstated again, and the letter had to go to my same friend to sign. What I
mean is this the first letter was signed, retirement by the then head of service,
he was Gbenga Fashhhhh ?????, my friend too, to reinstate me that first time,
he was the one who did the reinstatement so, when the second one came, Deji
Ajayi my friend did the retirement, and he was the one again, who had to
write me to come back again. So, here I am since then, sometimes around
February 13, 2020., just before the coming of COVID-19, so here I am ready to
go.
As a permanent secretary, what was your challenge?
The role of permanent secretary was generally to coordinate the ministries
under his purview. He is in charge of the men and the materials, the plant, the
equipment. He is in charge of the day-to-day running of the ministry, that is to
say, he is the accounting officer. Everything starts and ends at my table as the
permanent secretary. So, all departments report to me. All directors report to
me. And all deputy director report up down there to the last person in the
rung of the ladder and up to maybe the clerk the messenger, and the
permanent secretary is in charge of policy making . They are charged with
making policies for government. They carry out government policies on day-
to-day activities, and that is what we have been doing over the time.
What have you been able to set in place during your tenure as a
permanent secretary. Your legacy.
I thank God for the opportunity he has given me. I have worked in quite a lot
of places. The most attractive aspect of me is in my human relations and
capacity building. I am an officer that has never issued a query to another
officer in the last 35 years. Not that I am working or dealing with perfect
people, and not that I am perfect, no, but most time you want to tap from the
good aspect of an officer and when you see they are not doing well, you can
invite them and talk to them. About this time yesterday, I invited a very
serious director, a level 16 from Department of Budget, and we had a long
chat and I said I have noticed this about you. Lo and behold, it was not the way

he felt about me, and not the way I felt about him. And it was somebody who
said you have been my hero all along he said it at least three to four times in
the discussion. You have been my hero and I have seen you as a hero. So what
I am leaving behind here is my goodwill. I am proud to say that because of the
places I have worked, the Office of Establishment, the Civil Service
Commission, Teaching Service Commission, Governor's office in General
Administration, Political and the Economic Department of the Governor's
Office and so on, the last posting was the Ministry of Youths and Sports and
here ministry of Housing and Urban Development, I have been able to impact
positively on people. I don't have the right to appoint people, but I am proud
to say today, that by the grace of God, I have contributed happily to appointing
nothing less than a hundred or two hundred people to the service. Because by
the time I was in the Civil Service Commission, Governor Fayose was there, he
gave us authority to appoint. We appointed quite a lot of people and the rest is
history. Those people are now Grade 14 officers. I met one of them recently,
he said you don't know me, I said I don't know you, he said ah! oga you don't
know me, I said you are in the civil servant now, he said yes, you are the one
who appointed me. I said o wonderful, what level are you now, he said Level
14. Even at the retirement service, there people who have called me saying
they will be there, saying they are throwing a big party for it. We have
impacted a lot of people. Even when I was in the Teaching Service
Commission, we were able to also use that opportunity to assist people to
employment and we did employ people, by the approval given to us.

Do you think the civil service in Nigeria needs a reform?
Yes there have been a lot of efforts to reform the civil service in Nigeria. The
boldest effort, that was Decree 43 of 1988, we call it Admiral Patrick Koshoni
Committee, that was when permanent secretaries became directors-general,
even though , it had had to come back to becoming permanent secretary again.
That time, the ministry became professionalized. That is why today, the admin
man can rise to the position of an accountant, before becoming director.
Before it was not like that. Accountant was under the admin class, but now

they have even risen up, becoming permanent secretaries. There is an aspect
of it. The APER, Annual Performance Evaluation Report, it's Acts has been in
place and I am aware that there have been a lot of efforts to rejig the APER, of
course, it does not truly reflect the activities of an officer, for two year after
you have been employed for every six months, you fill the form and it doesn’t
reflect the actual performance of your duties. At times you can get an 'B or an
'A from somebody who have not even seen you before, and if you are not
satisfied with a 'D or 'C' , I have seen people who will just tell you no!, I am not
happy with this. You can also go to somebody else, to get it filled by another
superior officer. In that aspect, the position, how to properly monitor the
activities of civil servants has been an issue and it is still an issue.
What are those things you think the government can do?
This is my field and I am proud to say it. This is my field. Government will do
well to set in motion, more practical means of evaluating civil servants. Here
for example, in Ekiti state, there is an attempt in recent times, to build a
perimeter fence around this secretariat. When you came I believe you saw a
gate being erected, that will form a means of going in and coming out. In the
private sector, people clock, your time is 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. , when you come in,
you slot your card, it records your time in and when you go out, the same
thing. It captures your time. That is not in the civil service, I would have loved
a situation we have that. Because civil service is an open place. Observation,
monitoring, is not well handled. As I am sitting here, I don't know who has not
come to work today. I have about 88 staff members, how do I know those who
have not come to work today even if I come here every day monitoring the
offices, I may not be able to find out, and if I ask the officer, sorry, so if we can
introduce that, like I said, then, we can do actual monitoring of activities of
civil servants.
What is your advice to the civil servants?
I always say this and I think I stand to be corrected. The civil service is an
opportunity for people like us. How? Because for everyone of us that is here,
they will say, Oga ta, oga o ta owo alaru a pe, for everyone of us that is here,
today, 6th of December, my salary or our salaries will be paid. Government

holds that. I always tell my officers, there are ten people out there who want
to become permanent secretary like me. There are 20 people like that who
want to be in a position like my man sitting here, who wants to be a Level 14
officer, who wants to be a Level 16 officer, who wants to be a civil servant,
somebody who is a Degree holder will say oga, even to come and be cleaning
your office, even come and give me temporary appointment, let me come and
sweep your office. If we advertise today in the civil service, not less than
200,000 people will apply, because they have become over qualified, and the
jobs are just not there. But we are privileged. I will continue to say it, we are
privileged. My advice to my colleagues , this is always going to be their first
point of call , the office, the job, and I don't play with my work. I don't condone
people playing with their work, I don't condone it. Because this is what you
have, this is your first point of call at anytime, you have shops outside o, you
may be a trader o, but that trading, you probably got the money from the civil
service work through loans, the opportunities are there. Which you may not
get that from outside. So my advice is that we should take our jobs much
more seriously.
How do you feel retiring as a permanent secretary?
That is the icing of the cake. We started this job from Level 8, 35 years ago,
there is a Yoruba saying that says, shi, shi shi l'omode n dagba, that is, it is by
chance that a child grows up, I wouldn't know the number of my colleagues or
group of people that have died before I got to this level, or that have been
employed or that have lost their jobs. So getting here, there are not less than
forty, 20, 30 or 40 civil and public servants in Ekiti State, there are there
about 40 permanent secretaries in the state or thereabout, so to have risen
and to be one of these is a special privilege of God. It is not by my making , I
did not contribute anything to it. God made it possible. I am grateful to God for
it.

What is your advice to people who are looking up to you as a mentor?
Hard work, today's youths like you said, Yahoo, look at these my brothers and
sisters, they are working hard. Come easy, go easy. James Harley Chase wrote
that, comes easy goes easy, because I read all the books James Harley Chase.
Whatever you are doing be conscientious , be strong about it, work hard, there
is not free manna anywhere. Because if you get it free, it will go free. I don't
attribute anything to myself that I did, but I am saying I am able to get here
because I rose through ranks, and I saw what I need to work hard, is to stay
attached to my job.

What is your take on the recent redesigning of some Naira notes. What
do you think will be the impacts.
Well the Governor of the Central Bank has said by law that the currency
should be changed or could be changed every eight years. I think I am right?
Yes, you are right.
So, if he goes ahead to do it, what is wrong with that. It is ordered by the
existing law, so he has not done anything wrong. All the other excuses given, I
don't know anything about that.
So, what are your words concerning the coming elections, and some
advice to the politicians.
I am not a politician. People are telling me I will go and join politics after this, I
don't know. I am not a politician yet and I don't carry card for any party. Of
course I am a political animal, I will have my sympathy. To the glory of God,
today, Governor Biodun Abayomi, governor of Ekiti State, we owe him one
hundred percent allegiance. I will be going in less than two weeks or less, I
could have been saying something else, but no, we owe him one hundred
percent allegiance because Ekiti is our own. And the beauty of it is that this is
a man who has been part of us all along, he is not an imported politician, he
was here, he schooled here, he lectured here. He has worked in various
government offices here, and I have known him, as far back as the time of

Governor Niyi Adebayo. Talking about politics generally, the last seven years,
there have been some kind of drop down on the psyche of Nigerians. To say
the truth, unless you don't want to tell the truth. We need a very vibrant
leader. You cannot continue to go down to the abyss of being called the
poverty capital of the world. It is sad. It is very sad. Everything , all the indices
are pointing downwards. Dollar exchange, purchases, petrol, mention it, like
said why are we so blessed. That is the title of one of the books of Ayi Kwei
Armah, 'Why Are We So Blest?'Are we so blessed negatively, I think we need a
more active a man, who knows what he is doing, not just the day-to-day
politician, but somebody who has the thought and the interest of all of us in
mind.
What is the hope of Nigeria?
Hope of Nigeria? Wow!, wow! The Nigeria of our dream is yet to come. Nigeria
is going higher, we are going to do better than this. I am not a pessimist , I am
optimistic about the future, growth development, and the achievement of this
country. When you look at entertainment, you look at sports, you can see that
we are not doing badly. So there is a hope, it's a temporary set-back, it is not
permanent. And I know that from the rubbles here, we will rice to becoming a
great nation in future, and not very far, far away from now.
Prayer for your people, people that have worked for you for a long time,
now.
(Sunny) Okosun, now late, his song, "I love my fatherland", you know that
song, Which Way Nigeria''. I love my fatherland, I love the people of Ekiti
State, I am a very proud Ekiti man. I thank God for what I have achieved . I
thank God for the people who have stood by me in achieving them; my family,
my children, my wife, interestingly, she is from a village???????, and all the
people that have worked with me in the last 35 years. I have worked with
wonderful people. I always say it , in all my 35 years of service, I never said ,
ah tomorrow morning, I will go and see that man again. In the last 35 years,
like I mentioned before, to give anybody a query. There are times I worked till
10, when I was working in the Governor's office, 10 p.m., I never thought, ah I
am going to leave this office, thank God ooo!, I won't be seeing Awobiyi again,

or I wake up tomorrow, oh I will go and be seeing Awobiyi this day, I never got
tired of waking up every day to my work, or murmured on Sunday, oh
tomorrow is work again, I always looked forward to my work. In fact I enjoyed
doing my work. After this I go to my chambers, to go on with my life, with my
law work. That is the beauty of it, and the two and a half years that I was away
by Fayose, I opened a chamber, it is still existing, so I will just go back there,
After writing for some days or week, I will go back to the court, so working
with people has been a great experience. Yoruba would say, enia ni aso mi.
(people are my cloth) People have been so wonderful, I used to tell them, you
have been good, you have been wonderful because without them, we would
achieve nothing, because you can't do it alone. This job you are doing, you
can't do it without these people, that is the beauty of it and I thank God and I
would continue to thank God, and I pray that they too.., because it's a journey
that has a beginning, and it has an end. Everybody in the civil service will
come to this point. It's God.
Your prayer for your people, Ekiti and the whole nation.
I have said it. For Nigeria, we will go from bounds to bounds. Ekiti will very
soon, become the El dorado of Nigeria. If you look at our logo, we have the
land, we have the rivers, we have the mountains, we have everything and it is
a beautiful place to be. But with time we will develop, and I pray that God will
help this State and this country to develop politically, to develop financially ,
God will help us and save us from all the insecurity that we have in the
country, not in the state now.