Benue Ex-Commissioner Seeks Early Training For Civil Servants

A former Benue State Commissioner for Finance, Prof. Omadachi Oklobia, has called for structured entry-level training for public servants, warning that Nigeria risks neglecting the foundation of its civil service if young officers are not properly equipped.

Oklobia, a Resident Faculty member of the African University of Science and Technology, said the Aig-Imoukhuede Public Leaders Programme had demonstrated how values-driven recruitment and intensive training could produce public leaders with a different approach to governance.

He made the call in an article titled ‘Building the Next Generation of Public Servants: Why the Public Service Needs Structured Entry-Level Training Before 2030’, which was made available to journalists in Abuja on Thursday.

The professor said Nigeria already had working models of structured training but needed to extend them beyond senior and middle-level public officers to newly recruited civil servants.

He cited the Mandatory Training Programme for newly appointed chief executives, the Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme and the Structured Mandatory Assessment-Based Training Programme introduced by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.

According to him, the initiatives have demonstrated that structured and assessed training can improve performance in the public service.

“These are proofs of concept,” he said.

Oklobia, however, noted that the existing programmes largely focused on senior and middle-level officers, leaving a gap at the entry level where the future of the civil service was being shaped.

“What they have in common is that they aim at the top and the middle. The gap is at the bottom, where the future of the service is decided,” he said.

He urged the Federal Government to adapt the existing training models to newly recruited public servants, arguing that the first year of their careers should be treated as a critical period for professional development.

“The design principles are already there: mandatory participation, a clear curriculum, assessment with consequences, and linkage to career progression.

“Adapt them downwards. Scale them to entry level. Make the first year of a public servant’s career the most formative year of it, rather than the most neglected,” he said.

The former commissioner said implementing the proposal would not require a constitutional amendment or the creation of another government agency.

He identified a directive from the Head of Service, a curriculum developed in collaboration with universities, institutional partnerships and dedicated funding as key requirements.

“None of this requires a constitutional amendment or a new agency,” he said.

Oklobia described the public service as a critical national asset that successive administrations must deliberately develop and preserve.

“The public service is the one capital asset every government inherits, and every government passes on.

“We would not hand over a dam without maintenance. We should not hand over a bureaucracy without formation,” he added.

He also called for a shift in the perception of public service from ordinary employment to a profession requiring selective recruitment, structured training, continuous development and strict adherence to professional standards.

According to him, talent management in the civil service should go beyond promotion based solely on seniority.

He said government must deliberately determine who enters the service, how officers are trained, how their careers are developed and how they are held accountable.

“Values, skills and attitudes are not inherited; they are inculcated, or they are lost,” Oklobia said.

He warned that the country must establish a sustainable system for developing public servants before 2030, stressing that the quality of governance would depend in part on how effectively the next generation of civil servants is prepared.