WHEN CIVIL SERVANTS ACT LIKE STREET TOUTS: Ministry of Finance Coffin Saga must Attract Harsh Sanctions

WHEN CIVIL SERVANTS ACT LIKE STREET TOUTS: MINISTRY OF FINANCE COFFIN SAGA MUST ATTRACT HARSH SANCTIONS

Discipline Must Return to the Service—Mock Funerals Are Not Protest, They Are Misconduct

Nigerians cannot stop amusing the internet, and the law must not stop taking its course on them. The former Minister of Finance was fired yesterday — less than 24 hours later, his obsequies rented the internet today. A living man declared dead. What a barbaric action from Ministry of Finance staff, all because of the former Minister’s stance while in office. Must Ministry of Finance staff wish him dead? 

I have realized that such reactions in Nigeria ministries often occur when leader blocks shady deals or prevents the misappropriation of funds. 

The report that a coffin bearing the picture of Mr. Wale Edun was brought into the Federal Ministry of Finance, followed by staged wailing from staff, is a new low for the Nigerian civil service.

This is not activism. This is not culture. This is gross misconduct, intimidation, and a desecration of a federal institution.

In Yoruba tradition, staging the death of a living person is a grave taboo that elders say invites calamity and requires cleansing.

In the Public Service Rules 2021, it is simply “conduct prejudicial to the service” and “misuse of government premises.” Both the law and tradition agree: this is a malady.

VIDEO EXRACT: 👇

The excuse is irrelevant. Even if a former Minister or senior official was “crude in his stewardship,” the civil service has laid-down channels for petitions, not coffins.

We do not replace accountability with witchcraft. We do not replace query letters with mock obsequies.

When civil servants begin to behave like street touts inside a federal ministry, government must respond with the full weight of the rules.

This act has become a dangerous custom. Each time a senior official is redeployed or fired, some junior staff celebrate with “bad send-offs” — coffins, effigies, mock burials. That custom violates PSR 030301 and 030402 and must end now.

A workplace is not a shrine for malice.

The deeper danger is intimidation. Junior officers now deploy this act to cow senior officers, so that those in authority become afraid to caution or discipline erring subordinates.

This perverse reversal — where the supervised terrorize the supervisor — is common in the service and destroys command, merit, and productivity. It must stop.

A ministry where seniors fear juniors is a ministry where rules are dead.

Therefore, we demand immediate action as final discipline to any erring staff:

1. Fish Out and Sanction All Involved

The Permanent Secretary and Head of Service must use CCTV, gate logs, and witness testimony to identify every staff who planned, funded, or participated.

The penalty under PSR 030401 is dismissal for gross misconduct. Apply it without fear or favour.

2. Hold Directors and Supervisors Accountable

A coffin does not walk into a federal ministry by itself. Directors of Administration, Security, and Facility who were on duty must answer why they failed to stop it.

PSR 030402: “failure to enforce discipline” attracts demotion or compulsory retirement. Ignorance is no defence — a reasonable director cannot claim he did not see or hear a funeral procession in his building.

If they were complicit, they must go first.

3. Criminal Referral Where Due  

Section 150 of the Criminal Code and Section 24 of the Cybercrimes Act address threats and intimidation of public officers.

If the act is interpreted as a death wish against Mr. Edun, the Police and DSS should prosecute.

A ministry is not above the law, and the law must not stop taking its course because the internet finds it amusing.

4. Issue a Service-Wide Circular Immediately 

The Head of Service should circulate to all MDAs: _“Symbolic death protests, mock funerals, and effigies within government premises are banned.

Breach attracts dismissal and prosecution.”_ Post it on every notice board. Customs are changed by circulars, backed by sanctions.

5. Tighten Physical Security

No item larger than a laptop enters a ministry without a gate pass. Sergeant-at-Arms and Civil Defence must enforce this. If a coffin can enter, what else can?

To the Ministry of Finance: You are custodians of the nation’s treasury, not undertakers. Your halls are for policy, not processions.

If directors watched this malady and kept silent, they are complicit. If they joined, they are unfit.

To the wider Service: Learn from this. Celebrate with promotions, not with coffins. Grieve with petitions, not with processions. The civil service is governed by rules, not rituals of malice.

Final Warning to All Tiers of Government: Let this be the first and the last. Be it local government, state, or federal ministry — this desecration of office and land must stop here.

Any ministry that tolerates it next should expect the same sanctions: dismissal for participants, retirement for negligent supervisors, prosecution for threats.

The era of mock burials as a tool of insubordination ends today.

Punish the erring staff quickly, publicly, and lawfully. When misconduct is treated as “tradition,” tradition will bury the service. Impose discipline now, so the next officer is not sent off with a coffin.

Wherever this illegal and gross insubordination takes place — within or outside the ministry premises — it must be investigated.  

Impunity grows where sanctions sleep. Local government, state, and federal — wake the rules.

Mike Olatunji

🇳🇬Writes from Lagos