Posted by Chester Morton / Friday, 10 February 2017 / No comments
The problems of the Civil Service in Nigeria
Definition
The Nigerian Civil Service can be defined as an
administrative body constituted under the executive arm of the government. Its
main functions include, but not limited to, formulating and implementing the
policies of the Nigerian government.
PROBLEMS
Tribalism
One of the major problems of the Nigerian Civil Service is
tribalism. The ethnic and tribal affiliations in the Nigerian society makes it
imperative that one helps his or her brother to get his or her way around the
provision of services within the Civil Service structure which should have been
freely provided in the first place. It also makes it possible for people to be
employed into the service not on merit but on tribal affinity.
Over-staffing
Another major problem of the Nigerian Civil Service is the
problem of over-staffing. There are too many people employed into the service
who have nothing to do because there is simply not enough work to go round all
the workers there. This may be due to each person helping a tribesman to get a
job and feed his or her family. The over-staffing seem to be especially so at
the lower levels of the ladder.
Poor conditions of service
The condition of service in the Nigerian Civil Service is not
attractive. The salaries are nothing to write home about, especially, where the
economic conditions of the country is so fragile. Civil Servants have to drag
themselves to work every day because the zeal to be at work is not there. This
may also be conditioned on the premise that the number of workers are huge and
improving the service conditions and actually implementing them would require a
colossal amount of money.
Lack of qualified personnel
Another problem of the Nigerian Civil Service is that the caliber
of workers there are not the most qualified. One, because during recruitment,
critical criteria are ignored to get friends fixed and two, the condition of
service does not attract the qualified people to want to apply to work there,
let alone take appointments.
Lack of adequate training
The Nigerian Civil Servant does not undergo the necessary
training and retraining that is needed for him or her to perform at his or her
optimum. This may be due to a number of factors, chief of which may be the lack
of resources to carry out the training.
Political instability
The political environment within which the Nigerian Civil
Servant operates is not stable enough to ensure continuity as is required under
the features of the Civil Service. In the days of military rule, anytime there
was a forceful change of government, all the top men at the Civil Service had
to be changed. In this era of democratic dispensation, it is no different when
one political party loses power to the other.
SAMPLE QUESTIONS
1. a. Define Civil Service
b. Highlight five
problems that are faced by the Civil Service in Nigeria.
2. Explain six major criticisms leveled against the Civil
Service in Nigeria.
