Pat Stevens/
President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of four new Permanent Secretaries in the Federal Civil Service, but Adamawa State failed to secure a slot after its candidate did not pass the rigorous selection process, according to a member of the assessment panel.
The disclosure came from governance expert, Joe Abah, a former Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, who revealed details of the tightly controlled evaluation exercise that produced the new top civil servants.
In a statement issued in Abuja by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, President Tinubu approved the appointment of Warrens Augusta from Bayelsa, Jones-Nebo Bella from Enugu, Aminu Yargaya from Kano and Shoretire Kamil from Ogun.
The appointments were announced by Eno Olotu, Director of Information and Public Relations in the office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack, who said the selection followed a “rigorous and transparent” process aligned with the administration’s emphasis on meritocracy.
However, Abah disclosed on X that the panel responsible for the final assessment operated under extraordinary security conditions designed to prevent outside influence.
“I am privileged to have been on the panel to select new Federal Permanent Secretaries,” Abah wrote, explaining that panel members were effectively isolated in a hotel for a week.
According to him, the exercise ran from Sunday to Friday and involved long assessment sessions beginning at 6am and ending around 10pm each day.
During that period, officials of the State Security Service took possession of the panelists’ mobile phones to prevent external communication.
He also disclosed that operatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission monitored the panelists closely throughout the process.
“The SSS had possession of our phones and ICPC followed us even to the toilets to ensure that we couldn’t communicate with anybody,” Abah wrote.
Addressing concerns about the geographical distribution of the appointments, Abah explained that the positions were determined strictly by available vacancies and the outcome of the competitive assessment.
He said Adamawa State in the North-East presented a candidate but the contender failed to meet the required standard.
“The North East (Adamawa) competed but didn’t pass. There is still a vacancy in that state. They will try again next time, probably later in the year,” he stated.
According to Abah, 25 candidates initially entered the final stage of the process, with the four eventual appointees emerging as the top performers after the week-long evaluation.
He added that one additional vacancy remained unfilled because none of the candidates from the state concerned met the quality threshold set by the panel.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation congratulated the newly appointed Permanent Secretaries and commended President Tinubu for sustaining reforms aimed at strengthening professionalism within the federal bureaucracy.
She said the appointments underscored the administration’s commitment to transparency, competence and results-driven governance.
Permanent Secretaries are the most senior career officials in federal ministries and play a central role in policy implementation and administrative leadership within Nigeria’s civil service.
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