AMILOADED MEDIA HUB NEWS UPDATE
Nigerians were shocked to the marrow over the news that no fewer than 9,000 civil servants who sat the 2022 Federal Civil Service Commission’s promotion examinations failed.
According to the report, the list of the workers’ performance was obtained from the Federal Civil Service Commission.
It was gathered that out of about 13,000 civil servants that sat for the examination, which was held in about 69 Computer Based Test Centres across the country, over 9000 failed, leaving the number of the successful candidates in the neighbourhood of 4000.
The candidates, the report said, were drawn from the core civil service, including the Nigeria Police, other paramilitary and specialised agencies.
The report also said that the letter containing the list of the successful civil servants was dated November 30, 2023, and sent from the Federal Civil Service Commission.
The letter, tagged: ‘FC.6241/S.35/Vol.xi/ T12/268,’ was signed by the Director of Promotions, Sani Bello, and addressed to the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
A cursory look at the list showed that only 3,851 civil servants, out of over 13,000 civil servants who sat for the promotion examination passed, while the rest failed.
Since the report filtered into the public domain, Nigerians have been reacting, with many saying that the major problem which the country faces today is the issue of unqualified and dumb civil servants.
Those who hold this line of thought have strongly argued that the civil service of any nation is the administrative engine that keeps such a country’s government running.
Leading this argument is a mechanical engineer, Livinus Eze, who lamented that recruitment into the civil service in Nigeria is no longer based on merit, but rather on one’s ‘connection.’
He told Daily Post: “I remember in those days, when civil servants were held in high esteem because they were believed to be highly cerebral.
“Those days, when you hear that somebody is a permanent secretary, you would know that such a person is an embodiment of experience, competence and intelligence.
“But, what do we have today? We have a bunch of mediocre people, parading themselves as civil servants.”
How did the country descend into such low ebb?
He said: “The problem started with the introduction of a quota system in the recruitment process. The quota system made it possible that those who were not qualified got jobs in the civil service because of where they came from.
“For me, there is nothing wrong in quota system because it will ensure that one section of the country does not dominate other section, but where a section of the country or a state fails to provide qualified persons for particular vacancies, the proper thing to do is to fill the vacancy with competent and qualified people from outside such area.
“But, in Nigeria, so long as you are from a state or region that must fill certain vacancies, whether you are competent and qualified or not, you will be given the job. And that is the bane of our civil service.
“How can you explain what has happened; that out of 13,000 civil servants, who sat for ordinary promotion exams, which I am sure were based on their job specifications, not up to 4000 passed? And over 9000 failed?
“So, what are they doing receiving fat salaries at the end of every month? No nation can make progress this way; it is quite unfortunate,” he stated.
There are others who insist that the result of the promotion exam has only shown the level of rot in the country’s civil service.
One of those pushing this line of argument is Chidiebere Eze, a business administrator.
He argued that the corruption that is almost destroying every fabric of the country took its roots from the civil service.
“You don’t need to search far to know why Nigeria is classified as the global poverty capital. When you have people who don’t know anything but only to go to work and receive salaries at the end of the month, how can such a country be productive?.
“Poverty will inevitably be the lot of such a nation. Everything our politicians know about corruption was learnt from the civil service.
“They were the ones that introduced the famous ‘five percent’ of the 1960s that brought about the first military coup in Nigeria.
“The rot in the civil service is just too much and needs an urgent intervention. And it is good that this kind of exam was conducted and its result made public so that Nigerians can see where their problems are coming from and know what to do to tackle it headlong,” he told the Publication.
Also commenting, the Chairman of the Middle Belt Forum, MBF, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, said the import of the massive failure is that the civil service is lacking competence.
While speaking to the publication, he stressed that its implication was low productivity as no man can give what he does not have.
“The implication is that unqualified people are occupying positions in the civil service, meaning that productivity will be very low. Memos will not be up to the standards they ought to be. And of course, performance in the civil service will be declining.
“But that is not a new thing because the unnecessary bureaucracy, which the civil service shows clearly is a function of this kind of performance.
“When incompetent people are occupying positions, of course, their performance will be below standard, and rather than doing things correctly, unnecessary bureaucracy comes in and the whole system suffers as a result,” he said.
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