Civil service and reforms: The unspoken hurdle to Nigeria’s progress

My takeaway from a webinar I participated in in July 2025, as an observer, was that civil servants use state revenue to fight the success of government reforms.

As we know, reforms have long been a central theme of governance in Nigeria, spanning economic restructuring, anti-corruption measures, digitisation, and public finance overhaul. From the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to Muhammadu Buhari and now Bola Ahmed Tinubu, each government has attempted varying degrees of reform in response to mounting national and fiscal challenges.

Yet, while presidents may declare a reform agenda from a speech, it is the Nigerian civil service, the administration behind the curtain, which often determines whether those reforms succeed or fail. Over the years, Nigeria’s civil servants have responded to reform initiatives with a mixture of passive compliance, strategic resistance, and, at times, subtle sabotage. Understanding this response is crucial, especially now, as President Tinubu undertakes the most sweeping reforms in over a decade.

“When reforms fail to deliver real improvements in working conditions, service quality, or transparency, civil servants naturally retreat to familiar habits.”

Under President Jonathan (2010–2015), Nigeria benefited from high oil revenues, giving the government fiscal space to launch reform initiatives. In 2012, the administration attempted to remove the fuel subsidy, a major drain on public funds, arguing that the N1.3 trillion spent yearly could be better used for infrastructure and social welfare. This sparked the ‘Occupy Nigeria’ protests in January 2012, joined by labour unions and civil servants alike. Remember, the mother of the then minister of the economy was kidnapped for the government to reverse itself. The subsequent establishment of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) was intended to direct subsidy savings into public works, but it failed to gain traction within the civil service. Many saw the programme as a political tool rather than a genuine reform, and internal resistance coupled with poor oversight rendered it ineffective.

President Buhari (2015–2023) inherited a fiscally constrained state, exacerbated by an oil price crash and rising debt. His administration introduced several institutional reforms, most notably the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which centralised government revenues into a single platform, and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), aimed at eliminating ghost workers.

Yet, these efforts met resistance. Some ministries and agencies delayed compliance with the TSA, exploiting regulatory loopholes to maintain off-budget accounts. The IPPIS, especially when extended to universities, was fiercely opposed by academic unions and certain government workers, who claimed it disrupted institutional autonomy and failed to accommodate their peculiar salary structures. While the reforms exposed tens of thousands of ghost workers, they also revealed the deep-rooted interests entrenched in the civil service structure.

And now, President Tinubu’s administration has introduced the most dramatic reforms in recent memory. Within his first week in office, he announced the removal of the fuel subsidy, followed closely by exchange rate unification and now a broad tax reform. The result was a steep spike in the cost of living – transport, food, and energy – and massive inflation, which reached 33.95 percent as of May 2025, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Civil servants, like most Nigerians, have been hard hit.

In response, unions representing public workers, led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), have called for salary reviews, minimum wage adjustments, and compensatory palliatives. The Federal Government responded with an N35,000 wage award in late 2023 and has since negotiated a new national minimum wage, reportedly set at N70,000, although negotiations with labour are still ongoing.

Still, tensions have persisted, as many civil servants argue that their incomes have not kept pace with the economic shocks triggered by Tinubu’s reforms. Meanwhile, the government’s palliative efforts, like the Renewed Hope Conditional Cash Transfer, have been criticised for poor targeting and transparency. These frustrations have led to growing scepticism within the daily administration about the government’s ability to deliver reform dividends equitably.

In all this, we see that the attitude of Nigerian civil servants to reform is shaped by three core issues: job security, entrenched interests, and lack of trust in political leadership. Where reforms threaten informal income streams, like inflated payrolls, procurement kickbacks, or unchecked allowances, civil servants tend to resist, often quietly but effectively. At times, death threats and kidnapping are sent to the perceived agent of the reforms. On the other hand, where reforms offer opportunities for training, promotions, or political patronage, compliance increases.

Even more damaging is the absence of a change-management culture within the public sector. Reforms are often announced without adequate consultation or preparation. Middle and senior-level officers, who drive implementation, are rarely given a seat at the table. When reforms fail to deliver real improvements in working conditions, service quality, or transparency, civil servants naturally retreat to familiar habits.

For Nigeria’s reform agenda to succeed, the civil service must be at its core, not its periphery. That means more than compliance; it requires buy-in. The government must institutionalise training and retraining of civil servants on reform goals, link performance to promotions, and protect those who drive accountability.

Moreover, transparency must become the norm. Every reform tied to savings, whether from subsidy removal, revenue increases, or public procurement reform, should have a publicly accessible spending control panel monitored by civil society. Reform weakness sets in when citizens and civil servants alike see no benefit or feedback.

From Jonathan to Buhari and now Tinubu, Nigeria’s reform efforts have walked a difficult path. But if there is one truth that cuts across these periods, it is this – no reform can take root without transforming the mindset, culture, and incentives within the civil service. The success of Nigeria’s reform future depends on reforming the very engine that drives the government itself: the civil service.

Socio-cultural Affairs

Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date