There is this erroneous position that Nigerian civil servants or public servants are prohibited from participating in active politics in Nigeria. I recently had an argument over this with a colleague who went ahead to quote the public service rules for me which purported to have prohibited civil servants from participating in active politics. I most times also see folks argue blindly, especially on Twitter faulting civil servants who engage in political party activities claiming that such a civil servant ought to be disciplined.
This position that civil servants are not allowed to participate in politics or be card-carrying members of a political party or actively engage in the activities of the political party he/she identifies with is erroneous and false.
By the Supreme Court decision in the case of Independent National Electoral Commission v Balarabe Musa & Ors (2003) 10 WRN 1, the apex Court faulted the civil service rules which restrict the participation of civil servants and other public servants in the politics of the county. The court is of the opinion that freedom to express one political thought, join and participate in a political movement and express your political thoughts as have been constitutionally provided for in chapter five of the constitution is available and is for everyone with no exception of being a civil servant or not.
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In fact, his Lordship, Honourable Justice Ayoola JSC while reading the leading judgment in this case postulated that,
“There is nothing reasonably justifiable in a democratic society in the interest of defense, public safety, public order, public morality or public health in prohibiting a member of the public service or civil service … from eligibility to be registered as a member of a political party. The submission that the restriction is a valid derogation from section 40 by virtue of section 45 (1)(a) of the Constitution was erroneous.”
In his concurrent judgment, Honourable Justice Uwais CJN (as he then was) posited that “The provisions of section 40 of the 1999 Constitution are clear. Their purpose is to allow ‘every person,’ including public office holders and civil servants, the freedom to assemble freely and associate with other persons to form or belong to any political party, trade union or any other association for the protection of his interests.
By the implication of this apex court judgment in the case of INEC v. Barabe Musa & ors, the position still stands (until it is reversed) that civil servants and public servants are not prohibited from participating in active politics, what they are prohibited from is being partisan in the discharge of their civil service duties.
We should also pay attention to the fact that the position of the Supreme Court did not repeal the provisions of Rules 030422 and 030423 of the Public Service Rules (2008 Edition) which stipulated that a civil servant who wishes to participate in the nomination exercise or the party primaries or contest in an election must resign 30 days before the date of such election. This entails that a civil servant is constitutionally allowed to participate fully in a political party activities but if that civil servant wants to take his political participation to another level by contesting in an election or getting nominated in party primaries, that civil servant must reign 30 days before the day of the election as provided in the civil service rules.