PROBLEMS OF RECRUITMENT IN THE NIGERIAN CIVIL SERVICE: (A STUDY OF ANAMBRA STATE)

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

• BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The word civil service in Oxford Dictionary means the government in a country.  The civil service handbooks (1976:15) also defines “Civil Service as a body or an organ of government, which enjoys continuity of existence and they all work on pensionable appointment, it comprises of all servants of the state other than holders of political and judicial officers who are employed in a civil service and whose remuneration is wholly and entirely out of money voted by parliaments.  Based on the above postulation, the recruitment into the civil services is vested in the federal civil service commission or State Civil Service Commission as provided by in the Nigeria Constitution.  With the civil service rule (1978), direct appointment to state public service may be made in any of the following as trainee on pensionable post hold or based on contract against a pensionable or post for specified period etc.
The availability of a competent and labour force does not just happen by chance but through an organized and articulated recruitment exercise.  Recruitment is a process or a set of activities used to obtain a sufficient number of the right people at the right time from the right place (Nicels et. Al 1999).  Its purpose is to select those who best meet the needs of the work
place, and to develop, maintain a qualified and adequate workforce through which an organization can fulfill its human resource plan.  The efficiency and effectiveness of any workplace (whether the private or the public sector) largely depend on the individual in the work. A recruitment process begins by specifying Human Resource requirements (numbers, Skill mix, levels, time and frame), which are the typical result of job analysis and human resource planning that activates the next phase in the recruitment process, which is attracting potentially qualified candidates to apply for vacant positions in an organization (Baid 1999) says recruitment is a process to do with quality of people, a company/organization can attract.  This can be done through (internal sources) and (external sources) which is within and out organization.  After the phase, the organization should device means of selection to help sort out the relative qualification of the job applicants and examine their potentials for being goods performers in a particular job (Jones 2000).  Those tools include applications and interviews which go into reference cheeks and test.  The essence of these recruitment activities is for the organization to appoint/employ the best applicant with the right ability, temperament and willingness for the job.  Recruitment of personnel for civil services is one of crucial tasks of modern government and it les in the heart of the problems of
personnel administration (Basil 1994).  The State and Federal Civil Service Commissions serve as employment agents for the Civil Services in Nigeria and they control the recruitment without a fee (Nwachukwu2000).  Specifically, the authority for recruitment into the State Civil Service is the State Civil Service Commission.  However, the Commission delegates powers to State Ministry and extra-ministerial departments to recruit junior staff to posts graded GL 01 – 06 (Gazali, 2006).
The state civil service system emphasizes uniformity, standardization and transparency (Babaru, 2003) in recruiting competent applicants.  Before the military takeover of government in 1966, the civil service has played a Central Role and a very important role that has sustained the system for a very long time and in that it has given the military that legitimate instrument or instructions it needed. The military was able to carry all Nigerians along in spite of their weakness and autocratic leadership.  For instance, in 1988, the then President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Badmosi Babangida carried out some fundamental changes in the civil service in his 1988 Budget speech to the nation.  Incidentally, what appeared as a mere budget turned out to a major Structural Civil Service Reforms.  The Reforms touches many areas in civil service.  Remember the
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