Today's public perception of the public service in Nigeria judiciary and civil service in particular, is that these systems have now become temples of bribery and factories of corruption. This perception, appears only recent and still to be discovered fully as the campaign against immoralities has mainly singled out leadership in public and private sectors like the legislatures, politics and banks. On a much more subtle, dipper and massive scale the mechanism of buying off and paying off positions, influences, gains, winnings, investigations, cases, advancements and stupidities is continuously devised and developed across ministries, agencies and the judiciary. This machine is so hidden that it took pains on the part of some good faith Nigerians to unearth it forcefully for everyone to see. The persons of Honorable Bamidele Faparusi of the House of Representative for Ekiti State, and Retired Justice Mustapha Akanbi have asked the nation to watch out for what is happening in these public sectors respectively. If we are to restore public confidence and private faith on these agencies many of their operators need to be checked psychologically. What if many of these unusual bad acts we know of in these institutions, are been committed and perpetrated by some men and woman who are psychologically challenged or quietly mentally ill' These questions are essential if we are ever to inject the spirit of fair, balanced and objective decisions into those that are a part of the judiciary and the civil service in general. Beyond the frequent use of psychiatry, a specialty that is mainly about applying medications to address mental illness, the first thing to do is to apply the use of professional psychology which is fully about using measured instruments to uncover hidden personality, mental, emotional, organizational, immoral, and other behavioral tendencies. These procedures are done before the behavioral issue becomes a psychiatric case, and why a backward approach has long been the practice in Nigeria is beyond rational understanding. Would it not be in the interest of the nation to know the attributes of a potential Director, Magistrate or Judge' With the availability of psychological instruments to measure the level of honesty, work ethics, civility, conduct, competency, insight, intellect and character; won't it be simply okay to from the onset know how principled an individual is' Individuals found to be weak in these human areas are more likely to be an agent of nepotism, dishonesty, cruelty, ineptness, and fully subject to being used to do bad things by an unprincipled but conning persons like office messengers, senior lawyers, senior public officers or wealthy persons. In addiction, for the need for an initial psychological testing and scrutiny, periodic and random psychological testing in the areas of alcohol/drug abuse and attitude/general personality should be administered. There is need for a professional oversight squad with forensic/clinical psychologists as major participants to conduct ethical investigation, principled re-orientation and competency exercise for new, long serving and upward looking officials within the civil and judicial arms of government. We do not have to reach the age of America or Britain to talk about attitudinal change, official integrity, full transparency, open access, and good performance as these are common sense measures for positive growth and supportive development. 'Oshodi, Ph.D., is the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Psychological Association (NPA), Abuja. jos5930458@aol.com
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