Six civil servants from the Ministry of Defence who were kidnapped in Kogi State while they were travelling to Abuja from Lagos to write their promotion examinations in 2025 have been granted automatic promotion.

The Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission ( FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, disclosed this on Saturday in Abuja.

While noting that the kidnapping was a regrettable occurrence, he said that on behalf of the HCSF, his commissioners, and the entire body of civil servants in Nigeria, commiserates with the victims .

“The commission, in giving due consideration to the trauma that the victims of the kidnapping went through, hereby, on compassionate grounds grant automatic promotion to the six (6) candidates to their next grade level as education officers in the Ministry of Defence”, Olaopa said.

On how to avert such an unfortunate incident, Olaopa said that the commission was committed to leveraging the full weight of technology to implement a more decentralised process that would enable candidates to take their promotion examinations without travelling to Abuja.

Olaopa spoke at a “Recognition Dinner” in honour of newly promoted directors in the Federal Service organised by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Esther Walson-Jack . Commending Walson-Jack for the initiative and her other achievements in a short time since her appointment, Olaopa said that one would have hoped that she would have more time beyond 2026 to build on and expand on these reform initiatives.

According to Olaopa, the new directors are unique as they “are the guinea pigs of the commission in managing the transition from the analogue pen and paper written exam method to computer-based tests (CBT), which we are proud to celebrate recorded near 100% success.”

He commended the directors for their professional and disciplined conduct during the 2025 Directorate Level Promotion Exercise. He said that the CBT method unarguably enhanced the credibility and transparency of the exercise.

” The CBT had also meant reduction in cost, manpower deployed, time expended. It also demonstrated reliability, accuracy and timely processing of results, thus setting for us a strong foundation for promotion exercises in 2026 and in the years ahead”, he said.

On the overall experience of the commission, he said that it had witnessed some subsisting systemic weaknesses which had been subjects of reform concerns for many decades, but which required redoubled efforts at the level of getting the basics right with the system of public administration.

“Indeed, and inadvertently, in our drive to modernise some aspects of our administrative system, we, in some instances, find out that we are installing 21st century technology-enabled systems on partially collapsed traditional administrative structures. And as is often said, if the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous reformer do? We are then, precariously, short-changing the fruition of the full values of good, smart, and best practices and innovations that we are installing through ongoing reforms, thus limiting the chances of sustained success.

“I will take the benefit of a more seminal platform to explicate and expound on this subject matter and its nuances in no distant future.”

According to him, the other observation is that in the commission’s attempt to raise the bar of questions set at promotion examinations in order to align assessments to the level and depth of insight that public managers should demonstrate in the knowledge age, it has become obvious that the level of professional intelligence; the knowledge that civil servants have and demonstrate in terms of those basic bureaucratic skills such as the mastery of public service rules, financial regulations, administrative procedures, formal communication skills in being able to write clear, concise briefs and official correspondence, including minute-taking or writing submissions, memorandum

as well as demonstrable capacity which officers in the service should ordinarily possess as basic foundational skills and acumen are declining at a worrisome rate.

This to him validates the generally decried low organisational intelligent quotient (IQ) and capability readiness of the MDAs and the civil service as the engine room of government to drive the backend of national development growth dynamics and structural transformation, within the framework of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the FGN.

He said that the years of embargo on recruitment had obviously compounded this problem, making regular employment as an instrument for system rejuvenation to lose its value in government workforce composition. “This has in turn complicated the service’s historically weak system of workforce planning entailing manpower forecasting, talent management, succession planning and all those internal management controls in organisation and methods (O&M) dysfunctions at the roots of the over-bloated-ness of some cadres, while others cadres suffer skills gaps and manpower deficits. This unfortunate reality explains why many times we do not declare sufficient vacancies during promotion exercises making officers suffer highly demotivating stagnation and promotion blocks

We are hoping that the ongoing human resource audit being undertaken by the OHCSF will offer solution frameworks for resolving some of these deep structural weaknesses.

“We are also hoping to in no distant future, to deepen the bases for staff assessment and performance evaluation during promotion exercises by deploying the full weight of performance management system in the federal civil service, and thereby totally recalibrating the discredited annual performance evaluation reporting (APER) instrument.”, he said.

In this regard, he said that it would help if the service would benchmark the military command and staff colleges’ training-based assessment system, so that the huge expenses put into training investments in officers would begin to be taken more seriously and count in officers’ career progression.

While congratulating the newly appointed directors once again, he urged them to choose to be change agents as he himself did 31 years ago in the service through a sense of deferred gratification and patriotic fervour. (THISDAY)

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