Human Capital Acquisition and the Challenges of Developmental State: A Case of the Nigerian Civil Service 2000 – 2015

Abstract

The Nigerian civil service has not risen to its responsibility when it comes to implementing government policies within the rubrics of a developmental state. This paper, therefore, focussed on the human capital acquisition in the Nigerian civil service with a view to ascertaining the challenges confronting the service, despite the myriad of reforms of the civil service by successive governments between year 2000 and 2015; and proffering policy suggestions towards reversing the ugly trend. The analyses of secondary data were done using the lenses of the developmental state theoretical construct. It was found out among other challenges political interference by civil commissioners in the process of human capital acquisition for the service and jettisoning of merit system for ethnic and national spread considerations. It was recommended among other things that the functions of human capital acquisition should be left for core civil servants trained for that purpose to perform; merit system should be brought back to the service and incorporated in the process of implementation of the federal character principle.

Keywords: Civil Service, Human Capital, Development, MDAs, Reforms, Developmental State