From 2013, promotions in the federal civil service will no longer be based on examinations. Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, made this known while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.


Maku said the Federal Civil Service Commission in partnership with states civil service commissions had formally adopted a proposal to use the performance contract system introduced recently by the Federal Government as the basis for career promotions. He said the decision formed part of the report of the last Federal Civil Service Commission’s annual conference which was presented to the FEC. According to him, five ministries have been earmarked for the pilot scheme in 2013.

He said, “This indeed was presented to us and the commission is proposing that by 2013, five MDAs – namely Ministries of Education, Agriculture, Health, Finance and Works will be adopted as pilot MDAs to introduce the new system of promotion based on performance. “Previously, promotion in the civil service has always been through the regular civil service examinations that are written by civil servants. “In view of the introduction of the performance contract systems into the MDAs, the Federal Civil Service Commission is now considering the possibility of using performance measure which is the essence of this contract system as a basis for promotions.”


Maku added that rather than conducting examinations for top civil servants like directors, they would wait on the outcome of performance measurement which would be conducted on MDAs basis to determine if the directors have delivered on their mandates. The basis of that measurement, he added, would form the fulcrum on which their promotion would be based. The minister explained that promotion in the new system would be based on the result of the work they do as measured by the satisfaction of members of the public.
http://www.punchng.com/news/civil-service-promotion-exams-to-be-abolished-2013/
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This topic is on the politics section but am looking at the CAREERS perspective.
Performance measurement has always been an important issue but it seems the FG wants our civil servants to achieve results by ALL MEANS possible to progress.

Personally, this is the opinion I share -

Obinoscopy: This is very wrong! Performance should be 50% while promotional exams should be 50%. This is because the former is subjective while the later is objective.

Depending only on Performance means a dundee who has a Godfather as a boss will keep climbing the ladder even if he/she didn't merit it. Also depending only on Promotional Exams means an academic guru who is not industrious will keep on climbing the promotional ladder even if he/she didn't merit.

Thus they need both Performance and Promotional Exams as a bases for promotion so that they both balance themselves out