Senior civil servants in Federal Civil Service have called on President Bola Tinubu to, as a matter of urgency, cancel the recently conducted promotion examinations for directors in the country.
The civil servants also urged Tinubu to use his discretion to appoint permanent secretaries through a transparent and judicious process that places emphasises on seniority, experience, and qualification, among other credible criteria used in the past.
The senior civil servants also rejected the purported results of the examinations, which claimed that only 20 directors out of 85 initially invited to sit for promotion examinations to the rank of Permanent Secretary scaled through the exercise.One of the top senior civil servants, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, alleged that the invaluable experience garnered over the decades by the directors were not taken into consideration.
The official noted that despite the fact that the position of a permanent secretary is a political appointment that should reflect Federal Character Principle, some states, including Bauchi and Ebonyi do not have a representation as they claimed that their directors failed the exams.“Apart from gender imbalance in the so-called examination that denied adequate female representation who sat for the exam, there are other controversies that are now coming to light,” he explained.
Another senior civil servant, who also spoke on the issue, quoted some sections of the 199 Constitution as amended, which gave the President powers to directly appoint Permanent Secretaries“Section 171(1)(2)(d) gives Mr. President the constitutional powers to directly appoint Permanent Secretaries without the questionable exam conducted by the Federal Civil Service,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Centre for Public Accountability has also called for the cancellation and review of the recently concluded promotion examinations.A statement by the Director of Public Governance Monitoring, CPA, Nuhu Adams, alleged that the process was marred with huge controversies.
