Hussen’s civil service purge preceded African state reform by three decades

Evidence

Third, Prime Minister Hussen and President Osman sought to create a professional merit-based civil service establishment that could deliver services for the population. Hussen took the lead in implementing the far-reaching recommendation of the UN-led commission on civil service and in the process terminated large numbers of government personnel in senior positions who lacked the skills necessary to carry out their duties or who were complicit in corruption or disloyal to the country. Although Osman saluted Hussen for having the courage to embark on this reform, he had some reservations about some of the public rhetoric the prime minister used. Despite his reservations, Osman turned down the petitioners’ appeals for his help, but he urged them to seek recourse through the courts. Osman’s approach to this matter demonstrated beyond any shadow of doubt the centrality, for a democratic order, of the division of responsibilities among the prime minister and the president, the legislature, and the judiciary. Such a radical civil service reform and the transparent way it was done predated widespread reform in Africa by at least three decades. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1101