Poverty, Corruption and the Civil Service Law
By Precious Taiwo | Guardian Nigeria | 30 May 2026
It is a common scenario in Nigeria: a Grade-level entry civil servant, such as a cleaner at a federal ministry, earns N70,000 monthly, yet rent in the worst Lagos slum costs N50,000. According to public service law, he cannot sell airtime at his gate or run a small business after work; doing so could lead to dismissal. Another example: a driver earning N115,000 drives a director home in a Prado but treks to his one-room apartment. The law prohibits him from driving Uber on weekends, though he may farm. This is the reality for millions of public officers under the 1999 Constitution.
Nigeria today has 85.6% of the workforce self-employed, 11.1% employed in the private sector alongside personal ventures, and only 3.7% are civil servants prohibited from engaging in private business. The problem lies in Paragraph 6(b) of the Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution, which bans every public officer from running any private business, profession, or trade. This article calls for an urgent amendment to this clause.
The Law
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Fifth Schedule, Part 1, Paragraph 6(b) states: “except where he is not employed on full-time basis, engage or participate in the management of any private business, profession or trade; but nothing shall prevent a public officer from engaging in farming.” This clearly prohibits any other business activity while receiving a government salary.
Why Was This Law Originally in Place?
The 1999 Constitution was drafted after 16 years of military rule, during which corruption festered unchallenged. Military governors and public officers ran private companies using government contracts, creating massive conflicts of interest. The ban was reapplied to break that culture. However, this ban existed earlier: the 1979 Constitution, Fifth Schedule, Part 1, Paragraph 1 contained identical language: “A public officer shall not…engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade.” This rule guided the public service during the Second Republic before the military takeover in 1983 suspended the Constitution and ruled by decree.
The 1999 goal was to force public officers to choose between serving the state or running a private business. Under military rule, directors in works, health, and education ministries owned construction firms; ministers of commerce and finance owned import companies while setting tariff policy and issuing waivers to their own firms. Ministries became procurement arms for directors’ businesses. By 1999, the public service had become the fastest route to private wealth, with public good secondary or forfeited. Thus, the Constitution aimed to end military-style looting, offering a choice: serve the state fully or run a business. Public office became a full-time calling, with farming as the sole exemption to safeguard national food security.
Under the 1979 Constitution, a director’s salary could buy a Peugeot 504 and train four children abroad comfortably, with savings left over. In the 1980s, the United Kingdom, America, and Canada were full of Nigerian civil servants’ children. By 1999, when the law was reapplied and strengthened by the Code of Conduct Bureau, the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) had devalued the naira. By 2026, that same director-level job cannot buy a tire of a 504, let alone train one child in Ikeja. The government enforced the ban without restoring the economic dignity that made it fair in 1979.
Poverty in Nigeria
In 2026, the least a public officer earns is N70,000, equivalent to the price of a bag of rice. Basic monthly living in Lagos or Abuja—including food, transport, utilities, data, healthcare, and school fees—requires at least N300,000 for a decent life. Such pay is limited to senior officers with six to nine years of experience. The ban, written when government salaries could sustain a household, now forces public officers to choose between obeying the policy and living in destitution. If obeying the Constitution means working honestly and staying poor, the law itself produces poverty, not alleviates it.
The unintended consequence is a civil service populated by those with external family wealth or those who break the law to survive. A newly recruited constable earning N55,000 cannot cover Lagos rent, so petty bribery helps. Due to SAP in 1999, farming was mandated as the only permissible activity for civil servants, aimed at food security. But not every civil servant can farm, as skills vary. A public officer who cannot earn a living wage will either quit, steal, hide, or run a secret business. Most do not quit, creating a shadow economy of proxy companies registered in spouses’ or siblings’ names, controlled by the officer, who then steers contracts and favors their way. This opacity makes corruption easier, not harder, because the real conflict is invisible to the Code of Conduct Bureau, EFCC, and the public.
Economic Impact
Nigeria’s 2026 economy runs on MSMEs, innovation, and private enterprises, yet this policy prevents millions of the country’s most educated workers from participating legally. A director in the Ministry of Communication cannot run a tech school; a government doctor cannot own a gym; a university lecturer cannot own a publishing firm; a cleric cannot be a videographer and photographer on weekends. This economic waste is nearly unrecoverable: businesses not created, taxes not paid, jobs not generated, and expertise not circulating between public and private sectors. We are loading GDP to a 1979 ideology, while African countries like Kenya and South Africa allow regulated business ownership with disclosure.
Kenya’s Public Officer Ethics Act 2003 and Leadership Act 2012 permit public officers to engage in business but mandate annual wealth declarations to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, public disclosure of registrable interests, and strict recusal from government dealings involving their private ventures. A teacher can own a provision store; a doctor can run a clinic after hours and co-partner a gym but cannot bid for Ministry of Health contracts and must file yearly asset returns or face prosecution for unexplained wealth. South Africa, under its Public Service Regulation, allows remunerative work outside state hours with written approval, recognizing that a salary of R200,000 cannot feed a family in Cape Town. Other countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada practice similar flexible policies. The shared principle is regulation, not prohibition: public officers may own businesses, farm, consult, or hold shares but must declare interests to prevent concealment. These democracies retain skills, taxes, and service while deterring abuse.
Solution: Revise, Not Repeal
The solution is not to repeal the law but to revise it. The law should permit public officers to have businesses if they obtain approval from the Code of Conduct Bureau, ensuring no conflict with state service, and list them on a public website for accountability. Currently, over two million Nigerians are public servants legally banned from running businesses—two million potential founders with ideas, capital, and networks. If 10% started side businesses, that would be 200,000 new SMEs. SMEs contribute 48% of Nigeria’s GDP, injecting billions into the economy. Tax revenue would scale up: businesses would be registered with CAC, paying company tax, VAT, and PAYE for staff, widening the tax net without raising rates.
Faster innovation in public service would follow. Smart civil servants see problems daily—e.g., slow procurement—and can start companies to fix them, building solutions tested and scaled, benefiting the government. Americans did not ban public servants from business; they turned them into founders. DARPA built the Internet, NASA built GPS, NIH built Moderna. The law should be amended: replace the total ban with conditional permission. The amendment should state: “A public officer can engage or participate in the management of any private business, profession or trade, provided that: he obtains prior approval from the Code of Conduct Bureau; the business is registered with CAC; he states his degree of influence (management) over the business; the business does not conflict with official duties; he does not use government property for personal gain; and he declares such interest annually in a public register.” Government agencies should launch a civil service entrepreneurship program to uncover dormant skills among workers, enabling national prosperity. If conflict of interest arises, rules are clear and will be upheld. This opens a chance for those seeking a way out, and others will follow.
Amend the law. Nigeria should have a constitution that protects, sustains, and guides the public service. Give the public service its due dignity.
Precious Taiwo is a Broadcaster and Presenter at UNIZIK FM.
