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The Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Tunji Olaopa, has warned that prolonged employment embargoes within Nigeria’s public service are steadily eroding institutional capacity, weakening merit-based recruitment and driving qualified professionals away from government service.
Speaking on the second day of the International Civil Service Conference (ICSC) 2026, organized by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation under the theme “Reforms, Resilience and Results”, Olaopa called for urgent reforms in recruitment policy to reposition the Civil Service as a competitive and efficient institution.
Giving a presentation titled “Orientation, Merit and Digital Reform: Rewiring the Federal Civil Service,” the FCSC Chair said years of hiring restrictions have transformed employment from a strategic governance tool into a major institutional bottleneck.
According to him, the government’s inability to hire regularly has weakened workforce planning, reduced institutional memory and made it increasingly difficult for the public service to attract and retain talented professionals.
“I think a situation where we’ve been implementing an embargo for so long has caused the service to lose the value of using employment as a tool to recruit the service,” he said.
He lamented the increasing migration of skilled civil servants to the private sector and to foreign countries after receiving training in the public service system.
“Good people will go into public service, get initial training and move into other sectors. The rate at which we are losing them, including to the diaspora, is incredible,” he said.
The FCSC Chairman stressed that the Federal Government must urgently restore the civil service as an employer of choice through innovative recruitment policies, competitive wages and improved working conditions.
“For the government to restore its status as an employer of choice, we need to bring a lot of innovation to employment policies. Whatever we do with merit and competitiveness, if we do not address the issue of competitive wages and measure conditions of service as factors of merit, we are just playing to the competition,” he said.
He argued that hiring should no longer be viewed simply as a fiscal burden but as a strategic tool to strengthen governance, fill critical manpower gaps, support institutional continuity and improve service delivery.
It said that prolonged embargoes have significantly reduced the public administration’s ability to adapt to evolving public needs, despite the availability of qualified and willing professionals.
The FCSC Chair also linked sustainable recruitment reform to digital transformation within the public service, insisting that government institutions must move away from cumbersome manual systems towards interoperable digital databases, online recruitment platforms and integrated personnel management systems.
According to him, digital reforms would not only improve transparency and efficiency, but also make recruitment processes more accessible, accountable and merit-based.
He said performance appraisal within the civil service must evolve beyond paper qualifications and routine credential assessments towards measurable skills, productivity and tangible outcomes.
He stressed that merit-based recruitment cannot succeed in an environment where remuneration and welfare remain uncompetitive, stressing that the public service will continue to lose skilled manpower if officials are not adequately rewarded for their expertise and contributions.
He also called for greater professionalism, accountability and transparency within the Federal Civil Service Commission and the broader public service structure.
According to him, appointments in strategic institutions must be guided by competence, integrity and proven track record rather than political patronage or personal connections.
Olaopa warned that unless deliberate reforms are undertaken to restructure incentives, modernize recruitment systems and strengthen workforce retention, the Nigerian civil service could remain trapped in a cycle of declining productivity and persistent labor shortages.
