By Faith Anisiobi, The Sight News
Former Benue State Commissioner for Finance, Omadachi Oklobia, PhDP, has called on the Federal Government to introduce a mandatory 12-month graduate trainee programme for newly recruited public servants, warning that Nigeria risks losing critical institutional knowledge as experienced civil servants retire before 2030.
Oklobia, who is also Resident Faculty at the African University of Science and Technology, said the proposed programme should become a prerequisite for confirmation into the public service, with structured training in public service ethics, policy implementation, practical administration and leadership.
In an article titled Building the Next Generation of Public Servants: Why the Public Service Needs Structured Entry-Level Training Before 2030, he argued that Nigeria’s civil service must urgently establish a formal system for transferring institutional knowledge from experienced officers to younger entrants.
He warned that the retirement of senior officers without an effective succession and training framework could leave the bureaucracy with written rules but insufficient practical knowledge of how to apply them effectively.
“The difference was rarely the rulebook. It was whether the officer handling the file had ever been shown, by someone who cared, what the rulebook was for,” Oklobia wrote, drawing on his experience in government and academia.
Four-Pillar Training Programme Proposed
Under the proposal, graduate trainees would undergo at least 12 months of structured professional development before confirmation into the service.
The programme would cover four areas: public service values and ethics; systems thinking and policy implementation; practical administration and citizen-centred service delivery; and leadership and professional conduct.
Oklobia said the curriculum should go beyond classroom lectures to include practical exposure to government operations, enabling trainees to understand how policy decisions, budget allocations and administrative processes translate into public services.
He also advocated supervised workplace experience, including time spent at service delivery points, to familiarize young officers with the needs and expectations of citizens.
The proposal comes amid his concern that informal mentoring, which historically helped transmit administrative experience and professional values, has become increasingly unreliable because of frequent staff postings, recruitment cycles and the workload of senior officials.
According to him, relying on individual officers to learn administrative practices by chance risks weakening the institutional culture needed for an effective and accountable public service.
Universities Urged to Introduce Semester-Long Internships
Oklobia also called for universities and public institutions to establish structured, supervised and credit-bearing internships for students studying Political Science, Public Policy and Public Administration.
He proposed placements lasting a full semester, during which students could observe budget meetings, procurement processes and other government operations while gaining practical experience in preparing official memoranda and responding to professional feedback.
He argued that early exposure would help students better understand public administration before entering the workforce and enable them to assess whether a career in public service suited their interests and abilities.
The proposal would require closer collaboration between universities and government institutions to integrate practical experience into academic training.
Existing Federal Programmes Could Provide a Model
Oklobia said Nigeria already had examples of structured public sector leadership development that could inform the proposed entry-level programme.
He cited the Aig-Imoukhuede Public Leaders Programme and training initiatives of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, including the Mandatory Training Programme for newly appointed chief executives, the Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme, and the Structured Mandatory Assessment-Based Training Programme.
He argued that the principles underpinning these initiatives—mandatory participation, structured curricula, assessment and links to career progression—could be adapted for newly recruited officers.
However, he identified entry-level training as a major gap, arguing that the professional formation of public servants should begin at recruitment rather than being concentrated on officers who have already reached senior positions.
Head of Service Urged to Lead Reform
Oklobia maintained that implementing the proposal would not require a constitutional amendment or the establishment of a new government agency.
Instead, he called for a directive from the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, a curriculum developed in collaboration with universities, partnerships with institutions already delivering leadership training, and dedicated budgetary support.
He also urged a change in how the government approaches public sector workforce development, arguing that recruitment and promotion alone cannot guarantee institutional competence without systematic professional formation and accountability.
The proposal places the spotlight on a central question for Nigeria’s public administration: how to preserve institutional knowledge and professional standards as experienced officers leave the service and a new generation assumes responsibility.
For Oklobia, the priority is to ensure that the lessons accumulated over decades of public administration are transferred through a formal system rather than left to personal recollections and informal workplace relationships.
He warned that by 2030, the stories of how the public service once operated could remain only as memories unless the government establishes mechanisms to preserve the knowledge and values behind them.
