A REVIEW OF THE STRUCTURES AND FORMATS OF THE NIGERIAN CIVIL SERVICE FROM 1914 TO DATE

The Nigerian Civil Service went through several structural changes arising from many civil /public service reforms over many decades This review highlights the various structural and format changes that arose from the many civil service reforms . From 1914 up to the time of the 1957 reforms there were no Ministries under Ministers and Permanent Secretaries as we now know them. Instead the Civil Service was structured along functional lines, There were Departments such as Forestry, Education, Public Works, Agriculture, etc, and each was headed by the most senior professional officer, with the title of Director. These Directors were ex-officio members of the Legislative Council from 1914 until 1954 when the country attained the status of responsible government. During the years when the professional officers, as Director Heads of Departments, sat in the Legislature, they were responsible for all policy matters in their departments; they answered questions and defended their departments in the Legislative Council. They were the chief advisers of government on all matters relating to their Departments. Then came changes which altered their status and position. First, there was the political development which came with the attainment of responsible government in 1954. This was followed by the civil service re-organization of 1957 which featured the integration of departments into Ministries. Each Ministry was under a responsible Minister with a Permanent Secretary as his chief adviser. The Permanent Secretary was, in most cases, an administrative officer. He was responsible for the co-ordination of all the work in the Ministry and took responsibility for policy and all the affairs of the Department under the general control of the Minister as political head . Then came the Udoji reforms of 1974 which abolished the DL grading scale and created Grade Levels 1 to 17and increased the wages of civil servants, , the 1988 reforms changed the normenclature of the grades , abolished the position of Permanent Secretary and replaced it with the position of Director General, which became a political appointment, the position of head of the civil service was also abolished, The Allison Ayiuda review Panel of 1994 to 1997 restored the positions of Permanent Secretary and that of Head of Civil Service. The Article concluded by noting that the many reforms were yet to create a satisfactory structure for the civil service and called for another wholistic civil service reforms that will alter the present structure, mitigate corruption and nepotism and place merit ahead of quota system, tribal and religious considerations