To ensure that opportunities for employment in the federal civil service are open for all eligible Nigerians, the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) under the chairmanship of Prof Tunji Olaopa is to introduce an online recruitment portal.
The move which is also part of Olaopa’s objective of reforming the civil service and keeping it abreast of the digital era will see to the introduction of computer-based tests (CBT) for hiring and promoting of federal civil servants.
Prof Olaopa disclosed this at the maiden edition of the commission’s Monthly Seminal Series held on the agency’s premises on Thursday.
He said that since the inauguration of the reconstituted FCSC on the 13th of December, 2023, its mission had been to engage two concerns that had been woven into two seminal questions.
Shedding light on these questions, Olaopa said: “Why is it that in spite of the many spirited institutional reforms of the civil service since 1999, the federal bureaucracy seems to be declining in some vital indicators and parameters?
” And what has the FCSC failed to do as the gatekeeper of the federal civil service to safeguard its professional integrity through upgraded systems of recruitment and staff promotion practices? ”
Olaopa asked further : “Indeed, how did the commission become an abandoned space with dilapidated infrastructures, operating with such outdated work methods, analogues processes and uninspiring work environment, one which pool officers regard as a kind of Siberia that is punishment posting to anyone that ever finds him or herself there?”
According to Olaopa, the profession of public administration in Nigeria is also at a juncture that demands a measure of introspection by professional bureaucrats that should take them back to first principle and to such basic questions as: who a civil servant is and should be, and what qualities he or she should possess.
“We need answers to these questions as a basis for reprofiling who and who should be admitted to become civil servant, all within the framework of the reform to build a new generation of public managers in Nigeria.
“The present commission is however sold out to the mission to restore FCSC as a professional hub and centre of excellence solution house for HR practice in the federal service”, he said.
To Olaopa, the starting point of that transformation journey is for the commission to get back its originating mandate as the promoter and protector of the merit system in the civil service. According to him, this will make inevitable the hinging of the implementation of the federal character policy on meritocracy.
He said : “We however recognise that restoring competency-based HR practices and the merit system will be meaningless if intended reforms fail to address the wage and compensation dimension of meritocracy. It is this recognition that inspired our engagement with the Chairman, National Incomes Salaries and Wages Commission, whose insights were not only reassuring, but also seminal in its solution content.
“This takes me to the objective of today’s maiden FCSC monthly seminar series which is designed to institute a seminal space and learning lab for federal officers. One where the commission contributes to deepening the sharing and learning sustained interrogation of key reform issues and benchmarking in Nigeria. And this is commencing today with the topic ‘The Institutional Framework and Procedure for the Conduct of Directorate Level Exercise: Guaranteeing Integrity, Transparency and Accountability of Standard Practices’; as commencement point to begin to overhaul the commission’s core operations and practices.”
In this connection, according to him, the commission is transiting through the upcoming 2024 promotion exercise from analogue-rooted practices to computer-based tests (CBT) and the modernisation and digitization of its core operations.
“The commission is therefore introducing the following: Installation of online recruitment portal that is accessible to all Nigerians, and which enables eligible candidates to pre-fill recruitment form and update the same from time to time ahead of advertisement for recruitment into the federal service.
“Eligible candidates will in addition, henceforth undergo computer-based tests (CBT) and oral interviews with results collated and released real-time.
“FCSC is the meantime entering into an outsourcing contract with the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and JAMB as technical partners with a view to taking advantage of their infrastructure, networks and experience to enable online accreditation, CBT examinations and promotion interview for officers in the federal service starting with the directorate-level officers
“Today’s seminar is therefore convened to critically examine some of the first level issues and risks associated with the planned transition from analogue to online computer-based commission’s assessment processes as they touch on promotion exercises for federal civil servants. A number of other technical conversations will follow, as part of due diligence, before we begin social media orientation, education and mock-tests, to prepare federal officers for the 2024 promotion exercise which is scheduled to hold in the third-quarter of the year
“Beyond the CBT and the digitization and computerisation programme, there are many other facets to the commission’s reform plan, which will be unveiled progressively as we get the sign-on and endorsement of our principal. Of course, the commission requires enhanced staff capacity and upgraded institutional capability to sustain the momentum that this series of reform initiatives will create.
“We are however hopeful that in so far as all the efforts are channelled to strengthen the professionalism of the federal bureaucracy to enhance the potential of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President to game-change Nigeria’s national transformation journey, thereby relieving the burdens and pains that the irreducible policies of the Federal Government may have created, then we sure will not lack the oxygen required to keep the implementation of the reform programmes on course.”
The one-day seminar with the topic “Institutional Framework and Procedures for the Conduct of Directorate Level Promotion Examination: Guaranteeing Integrity, Credibility, Transparency and Accountability” was convened by the Chairman of the FCSC, Prof. Olaopa. It had the following as the speakers and panelists: Mr Olu O. Ilesanmi – Rtd. Permanent Secretary, Federal Civil Service; Dr Ahmed Dunoma Umar – Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Youth Development; Mr Ataboh Ademu – Director (Learning and Development) OHCSF; Prof Olugbenga D.Ojo – Director, Examination and Assessment (NOUN) ; and Mr Mato Yusuf Abdullahi – Director (ICT) FCSC
