Civil service commissions pledge to reposition for better service 

In recognition of their role in good governance, civil service commissions have resolved to reposition for improved service delivery to the public.

This was contained in their communiqué called the “Katsina Declaration” during their conference in Katsina between November 25 and 28, 2024.

The meeting, which was the 43rd Conference of the National Council of the Civil Service Commissions held under the auspices of the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, had the theme, ‘The Role of the Civil Service Commissions in Driving the Renewed Hope Agenda of Government.’

In the communiqué, which drew from paper presentations, questions and answers at the conference, the council recognised the key role of the civil service as a vital instrument of government in policy-making and implementation, as well as a crucial mechanism for partnership in governance and interfacing with the public.

The communiqué made this recognition considering that government at various levels have lost their status as employers of choice for many years now. It stressed that the civil service commissions are implicated in the quality of the workforce that determines its capability to deliver the objectives of governments and, thus are complicit in any failure to do so, especially through its constitutional role to undertake recruitment/employment, promotion and disciplinary control.

It also noted that “many states’ civil service commissions have not evolved a framework of shared guidelines and operating procedures for backstopping the implementation of their constitutional mandates; and that the Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (APER) appraisal template has proved to be a dysfunctional and outdated instrument of true performance in the civil service in Nigeria, requiring a modernised and performance-determining alternative; and that the civil service commissions are saddled with the gatekeeping mandate and regulatory responsibilities for recruitment and competency-based practices in the conduct of promotion exercises.

To stem the tide of politicisation of the processes within the framework of professionalising the civil service in Nigeria.

It also noted that the quality of education of Nigerian graduates from some of the tertiary institutions constitutes the pool of human capital that determines the quality of the civil service workforce; and that a new change management framework and ethical reorientation is required to inaugurate a critical mass of the civil service managers, administrators and leaders that are moral agents who are committed to building integrity in their MDAs by doing the right things and doing them right within their spheres of influence.”

The conference re-asserted the constitutionally conferred responsibilities of the Civil Service Commissions (CSCs) in human resource management of the civil service, particularly in matters of recruitment, promotion and discipline.