IN what would appear to be a furtive move to shroud everything around the presidency in secrecy, about 42 staffers of the State House, Abuja, were forced to swear an oath of secrecy by the authorities last week. The oath of secrecy and declaration of secrecy was reportedly administered to the affected staff by Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court. The Permanent Secretary of the State House, Tijani Umar, allegedly threatened the staff with dire consequences as spelt out in the public service rules if they divulged confidential and classified information without due authorisation. It is worthy of note that the Official Secrets Act, 1962, which most public servants are familiar with, already makes adequate provisions for the safety and security of official information, documents and facilities.
The question is, if there are rules of engagement which Umar himself alluded to, why the extraordinary measure of another oath-taking? Why place emphasis on oath-taking now? Does the government have something to hide? Even in the unlikely event that some key staff in the presidency are oblivious of or have forgotten the extant rules, shouldn’t sensitisation of staff through internal memo, seminar or workshop have been enough to bring them up to speed, instead of making a recourse to another oath-taking? To be sure, taking of oaths by civil servants is normal, but why a second one by the staff of the State House?
The motivation for the over-the-top measure is yet unclear and the rationale set forth hereunder by Umar is less than convincing and clearly unhelpful in understanding the real motive of the fresh oath-taking exercise: “We discovered that due to the deployment of officers and retirement, a number of our staff needed to be placed under the radar so that they would be aware of their jobs: the kind of documents or information they are handling from day to day and beyond are so important and must be safeguarded. That’s the reason we decided to do the needful by administering the Oath of Secrecy, highlighting the importance of letting them know what information they are managing and the consequences of the breach of such information.” Umar even went further to disclose that the State House had had no breach and did not anticipate having any breach.
What that means is that the staff have always obeyed the rules and are expected to continue to do so, yet the government still considered it imperative to administer another oath of secrecy to them. And perhaps to underscore the significance of the exercise, a High Court judge was on hand to do the job. Could it be that the government is in denial? Or is the government planning to introduce some outrageous and potentially anti-people initiatives and believes only oath-taking will make its key staff to keep quiet when they become aware of them? The idea of dual oath-taking raises a lot of suspicion, especially in these trying times characterised by worsening insecurity and palpable weakening of the bond of union of the Nigerian State, as evidenced by grave discontent in different parts of the country. Perhaps the government needs to be educated that dual or multiple oath-takings are most unlikely to smoulder rumours. Rather, a regime of transparency will make it difficult for hearsay to thrive.
By their training and the extant public service rules, civil and public servants are not expected to disclose official information without being authorised to do so. And their training and the rules have always been sufficient in guiding them in treating official information and documents with the requisite discretion. However, the instant case of official resort to a second oath-taking to achieve the same objective is rather surprising, novel and capable of multiple interpretations. It is even ironic that the presidency is determined to put a veil on happenings in the official circles at a time when, save for issues around national security, bureaucracies in saner climes are gravitating towards more and more transparency and full disclosure in the conduct of government business.
Except the government has something to hide, the second oath-taking by the 42 civil servants was patently unnecessary. We urge the government to get down to brass tacks. It should focus and channel its efforts to developing strategies and taking pragmatic steps to tackle the pervasive and worsening insecurity in the country, douse the tension in the polity, and unify the virtually fractured components of the state, rather than dissipating energy on exercises that tend to fuel rumours and inspire panic in the system.
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