Politics of Recruitment and Selection in the Nigerian Civil Service – An Ebonyi State Experience

Abstract

Recruitment and selection exercise has been long recognized as the most important human resources functions designed to attract and subsequently choose the best applicants to be appointed and placed on job openings in organization. There is a growing realization that the recruitment and selection exercise has the potency to make or mar the success of any organization. This study is an attempt to examine the impact of politics on the process of recruitment and selection exercise in the Nigerian civil service with special attention on Ebonyi State civil service. The study adopted content analysis to critically review the views of other scholars on the topical issue. It was revealed that politics is a regular feature in the Nigerian civil service recruitment exercise. The effects of the exercise have been identified as the bane of the service which include – corruption, inefficiency, low productivity, indiscipline, etc. on the basis of the foregoing, the study posited that recruitment and selection exercise should be credibly handled by experts, hence the civil service commission should be composed of experts in human resource management. Also, the autonomy of the civil service commission should not only be in principle but in practice. The implication of the above is that lack of interference in the operations of the commission will enable it objectively and efficiently discharge its responsibilities with out fear and favour to ensure efficient public service delivery.

Keywords: Recruitment, Selection, Politics, Civil service.