Government · Lesson 8

The civil service and public corporations

JAMBWAECNECO

What the syllabus asks

JAMB: Civil service: meaning, characteristics, functions, structure, control and problems; public commissions (Federal Civil Service Commission, Code of Conduct Bureau, Public Complaints Commission); public corporations and parastatals: types, purpose, functions, control, problems, privatisation and commercialisation

WAEC: The civil service: meaning, characteristics, structure, functions, problems; control of the civil service; public corporations: meaning, reasons, functions, control, problems; commercialisation and privatisation

NECO: The civil service: meaning, characteristics, structure, functions, problems; control of the civil service; public corporations: meaning, reasons, functions, control, problems; commercialisation and privatisation

What you will learn

Define the civil service and distinguish it from the wider public service.
Explain the characteristics and functions of the civil service.
Describe the structure of the civil service and the role of the Federal Civil Service Commission.
Explain the problems of the civil service and ways of controlling it.
Outline the major civil service reforms in Nigeria.
Explain the meaning, reasons, functions, control and problems of public corporations, and the case for and against commercialisation and privatisation.

Key points

Civil service: permanent, salaried, trained officials in ministries and departments who advise on and implement policy; part of the wider public service.
Features: permanence, neutrality, anonymity, impartiality, hierarchy, merit, rules and records.
Minister: political head; Permanent Secretary: administrative head and accounting officer; Head of the Civil Service of the Federation coordinates.
Functions: implementation, advice, drafting bills and budgets, continuity, delegated legislation, records, revenue.
FCSC (s.153; Third Schedule) appoints, promotes and disciplines; Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal (Fifth Schedule); Public Complaints Commission (1975).
Control: ministerial, legislative, judicial, financial (Auditor-General), commissions, anti-corruption agencies, press.
Problems: corruption, politicisation, red tape, overstaffing, poor pay, nepotism.
Reforms: Tudor Davies, Harragin, Gorsuch, Mbanefo, Morgan, Adebo, Udoji (GL 01–17), 1988 reorganisation, Ayida 1994.
Public corporations: statutory, state-owned, own board, legal person; for essential and strategic services.
Commercialisation keeps public ownership; privatisation transfers it (TCPC 1988, BPE).

Start here: Meaning of the civil service

When you apply for an international passport, register a business, collect your WAEC certificate through a state ministry, or see a road being built, much of the work is done by people you never vote for. They stay in post when governments change. They are civil servants.

The civil service is the body of permanent, salaried and professionally trained officials employed in the ministries, departments and agencies of government to advise on and implement government policy.

The word "civil" separates these officials from the military. In Nigeria there is a Federal Civil Service and a separate civil service in each state; local governments have their own staff (the local government service).

Civil service and public service

The public service is wider. Section 318 of the 1999 Constitution defines "public service of the Federation" to include service in the civil service, the National Assembly staff, the courts, the armed forces, the police, statutory corporations, and other federal bodies. So every civil servant is a public servant, but not every public servant is a civil servant. A police officer, a lecturer in a federal university and a staff member of a federal corporation are public servants, not civil servants.

Worked example 8.1

Classify: (a) a Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Health; (b) a soldier; (c) a nurse employed by a federal teaching hospital.

(a) Works in a ministry: civil servant (and public servant).
(b) Armed forces: public servant, not a civil servant.
(c) A teaching hospital is a statutory body: public servant, not a civil servant in the strict sense.

Civil service is a part of the public service

⚠️ Common mistake: using "civil service" and "public service" as if they meant exactly the same thing. Examiners reward the distinction.

Try it yourself. Give one reason the civil service is called "permanent".

Show solution

Its officials keep their jobs when governments change; they serve successive governments until retirement.

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Practice questions

1. The civil service consists of

permanent, salaried officials in government ministries and departments
elected politicians
judges
the armed forces only

Show answer

A: permanent, salaried officials in government ministries and departments
The core of the public service.

2. The principle that civil servants should not take part in partisan politics is

anonymity
permanence
hierarchy
neutrality

Show answer

D: neutrality
They serve any government in power.

3. Anonymity in the civil service means that

they cannot be promoted
they are unknown to the minister
civil servants are not publicly credited or blamed for policy
they have no names

Show answer

C: civil servants are not publicly credited or blamed for policy
The minister takes public responsibility.

4. The administrative head and accounting officer of a ministry is the

Auditor-General
Permanent Secretary
Minister
Head of Service

Show answer

B: Permanent Secretary
The minister is the political head.

5. The body that appoints, promotes and disciplines federal civil servants is the

Federal Civil Service Commission
Code of Conduct Bureau
Public Complaints Commission
National Judicial Council

Show answer

A: Federal Civil Service Commission
Established by section 153.

Key words

Civil service: The body of permanent, salaried officials who run government ministries and departments.
Public service: A wider term: the civil service plus the police, armed forces, judiciary staff, public corporations and other public employees.
Bureaucracy: Administration by appointed officials organised in a hierarchy and following fixed rules (Max Weber).
Permanent Secretary: The most senior career official and accounting officer of a ministry.
Neutrality: The rule that civil servants must not take part in partisan politics.
Anonymity: The convention that civil servants remain unnamed; the minister takes public responsibility.
Red tape: Excessive formal rules and procedures that slow down decisions.
Public corporation: A state-owned body created by statute to run a service or business, with its own board.
Parastatal: A government-owned agency or company that operates with some independence from a ministry.
Commercialisation: Reorganising a state enterprise to run profitably without government subvention, while ownership stays public.
Privatisation: Selling all or part of the government’s shares in an enterprise to private investors.
Ombudsman: An official who investigates citizens’ complaints against public authorities (in Nigeria, the Public Complaints Commission).

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