The civil service, often referred to as the engine room of governance, is tasked with implementing government policies and programmes. In this report, COLLINS OLAYINKA examines how politicisation and power struggles in public offices are undermining civil service efficiency.

Every government relies on its civil service to implement its policies and programmes for the benefit of the people.

In doing so, civil servants take no blame or glory for the failure or success of government initiatives, even as their impacts can be soothing or uncomfortable. When civil service is compromised or ineffective, the government’s ability to deliver public good becomes inadequate, resulting in a decline in public perceptions due to pressure from the citizens.

Experts insist that the impacts of a particular government can be influenced by the level of civil service efficiency.

At an occasion held in honour of the pioneer Director General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dr Goke Adegoroye, retired Permanent Secretaries gathered to eulogise one of the finest public servants that has emerged out of Nigeria, following in the footsteps of forebears such as Philip Asiodu and Allison Akene Ayida, who were referred to as ‘super-permanent secretaries’.

Typical of Adegoroye, he marked his 75th birthday, which fell on Wednesday, 27th August 2025, with a book, ‘Leadership in the Nigerian Civil Service: Five Decades of Lessons in Performance, Encounters and Triumphs’.

With his many ‘fights’ and ‘struggles’ to influence the emergence of a credible civil service even in his retirement, a retired Permanent Secretary in the presidency, Dr Bukar Usman, in his foreword to the book, described Adegoroye as ‘retired’ but not tired, a quintessential civil servant. He noted that Adegoroye is deeply informed and passionate about issues of public service in general and the civil service in particular, adding:

“Civil Service affairs are a constant on his lips, whether in private or public settings with anyone and at any time – even including his dear wife. It has now been a decade and a half since Dr Adegoroye retired from service, yet he has never disengaged from conversations around governance or public administration.

“He is a stickler for rules and procedures, particularly in the recruitment and screening of persons for public offices. It is fair to say that he has assumed a form of lifetime guardianship over what he considers to be in the national interest, informed by over three and a half decades of selfless service and grounded in a principled upbringing.”

Well, some Nigerians who are at a loss as to what the contributions of civil servants are to national development are not alone. Adegoroye asked himself the same question. He asked himself in 2010 when he retired, “I was at a loss pointing to my contribution to nation building.”

Usman also asked why the civil service was the burial ground of initiatives and a platform that derives pleasure from frustrating talents.
He declared: “A great deal needs to be done to truly reposition the public service as a virile national institution for the realisation of our core national development aspirations in the 21st century.”

Speaking on his experiences in the civil service, Adegoroye called for reformation of both the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation (OHCSF) and Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) to embed integrity in the system as well as ensure only qualified candidates fill higher offices.

His words: “My observation so far is that the eyes of the integrity needles of both the OHCSF and the FCSC appear to have grown so big in recent times that camels of questionable integrity are strolling through them into higher positions and sensitive deployment in the civil service. Until we begin to carry out tracer checks of the career path of every officer aspiring to higher positions to identify their integrity hiccups and to summon the courage to rise above political and primordial sentiments in taking civil service appointment decisions, our civil service will continue to suffer.”

He stated that his latest book, beyond the euphoria of his birthday, is aimed at placing posterity on the table for those coming behind to learn from.

Adegoroye also observed that the book offers a quality roadmap to the political leadership to see in practical terms that engraving their love in the minds of the populace lies in a strong, virile, just and effective civil service.

“This new publication is my own attempt at boldly confronting the situation, believing that the real-life examples used to illustrate the state of leadership effectiveness in the civil service would spur the emerging leaders to sit up and that it will prick the conscience of the political leadership to appreciate why effective and efficient civil service is the cornerstone of achieving their developmental vision for the nation,” he explained.

He noted that the success of tax and finance policies, contract awards are all contingent upon public service leadership effectiveness, but regretted that the civil service hardly ever gets the thrust from the throttle of governance, except by drawing the daggers against it.
Adegoroye called for the establishment of the Federal Public Service Council (FPSC) to address cross-public service issues of harmonisation and inter-service relationships.

He said that there are retired civil servants who still feel hurt, pained and short-changed, Adegoroye urged the Federal Government to take steps to heal such wounds to inspire hope in those who are committed to integrity that the system may one day recognise them.

As he seeks justice for victims of the service, Adegoroye expressed hope that those who took advantage of the system will receive their dues in no distant time.

Adegoroye held that through his 4th title of the Chief Executive of the Federation, the President of Nigeria is the number one bureaucrat and Head of the Public Service of the Federation. He submitted that the path to institutional restructuring to save Nigeria lies not with politics but the civil service (the strategic think tank of what is good for Nigeria), observing, however, that the challenge is that most of the time, the civil service is at the blind spot of the President’s attention.

Adegoroye added: “In the final analysis, the onus for ensuring quality leadership of the civil service is on the president: just as a people get the government it deserves, there is a real sense in which a president gets the civil service he deserves.”

Another source of concern is the plight of retired workers who daily lament non-payment and the inadequacy of their pension.
But he was unsure where to lay the blame, saying, “What can we say about the plight in retirement of public servants who in their service years served with integrity: a classic case of the failure of the pension policy? How do we ensure that such failures do not shape the behaviour and values of those still in the service?”

While lauding the current Head of Service of the Federation, Didi Esther Walson-Jack, for her untiring efforts at repositioning the service, Adegoroye observed that even if she strives to perform at the best of her capacity and capability, there are constitutional and structural limitations to what her office can do.

He then submitted, albeit rhetorically: “How can we make a successful president as the driver of the nation’s wagon to be ever conscious of what lurks in his blindside? Reciprocally, how can the HCSF position the service away from the blindside to the direct view of the President? And, how do we make an HCSF appreciate that doing so is not an admittance of failure in leadership but a result of dedication to proactive initiative?
Permanent Secretary, Anthonia Ekpa, said that though there are four out of the 11 Heads of Service that have been appointed since 1999, the focus should not be on gender, but on performance.

She described Adegoroye as a head-hunter for the best-suited people for positions while in the service, saying the present Head of Service has proven stakeholders right that she is best suited for the role.

She said: “Among the people who were being speculated in the press then, some of us were afraid that some of them who are men may emerge.
It would have been a terrible disaster for the service. So, that she was appointed, not because she was female, was good because we knew she was better than the other candidates.

Mr Japh Nwosu, retired Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, advocated adherence to guidelines that prescribe how promotion should be done in the civil service.

“We must make sure that the right persons are appointed in the right positions. Secondly, those who get promoted are also promoted, given the guidelines established in the statute books we use in the civil service,” he stated.

Nwosu hinted that the Council of Retired Federal Permanent Secretaries will not tire in its pursuit of the enthronement of meritocracy in the public service.