By Wumi Oyehan
About 10,700 civil servants in the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) commenced the 2026 promotion examination, with the exercise expected to run through next week across designated centres in Abuja.
The examination, organised by the FCT Civil Service Commission, is part of efforts to ensure that eligible civil servants are promoted as and when due, while clearing outstanding promotion backlogs inherited by the Commission since its establishment in 2024.
Chairman of the FCT Civil Service Commission, Engr Emeka Ezeh, who monitored the exercise, said the Commission had successfully cleared all outstanding promotion backlogs and would, from 2027, conduct only the promotion exercise for the corresponding year.
“About 10,700 of them are going to have the exam that started today. It’s going to run throughout this week up to next week, and we believe that at the end of the exercise, those who are successful will be promoted,” Ezeh said.
He said the exercise was consistent with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda for the civil service, as well as the directive of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, that civil servants in the territory should be promoted when due.
According to him, the Commission, which became operational in 2024, had made the clearance of promotion backlogs one of its priorities.
“In 2026, the Commission has cleared all the backlogs of all the outstanding promotions, so that by 2027, we’ll be conducting only the 2027 promotion exercise,” he said.
Ezeh also attributed the relatively seamless conduct of the current examination to lessons learnt from the previous exercise.
He said the Commission had introduced measures aimed at eliminating delays, overcrowding and technical challenges experienced previously.
Among the measures, he explained, were early commencement of the examination, the use of generators instead of relying solely on electricity supply from AEDC, and a first-come, first-served system for issuing examination cards. “With each outing, we learn from the mistakes of the previous one. Part of what we have learned is that we needed to start on time and be sure we are on generator rather than being on AEDC so that the issue of glitches will not arise,” Ezeh explained.
He said candidates who arrived early were allowed to write their examinations and leave, thereby ensuring a continuous flow of participants through the centres.
Promotion strictly on merit
The Commission Chairman, however, cautioned participants against assuming that obtaining the minimum examination score automatically guarantees promotion.
Ezeh explained that promotion in the FCT civil service was subject to three major conditions: maturity on the current post, attainment of the prescribed minimum score and availability of vacancies.
He said officers below Level 14, from Level 7, must have spent at least three years on their current posts, while officers on the Directorate cadre, from Assistant Director upwards, must have spent at least four years on their current posts.
Candidates must also not have disciplinary cases against them.
“The Public Service Rule and our guideline for appointment for promotion says that promotion shall be based on merit only,” Ezeh said.
He illustrated the principle with a hypothetical example, saying that if there were three vacancies and 10 qualified candidates, only the three candidates with the highest scores would be promoted. “If somebody scored 90, another 85, another 80, and then somebody scored 75, 65, 70, only the 90, 85 and 80 will be promoted in that ranking order,” he said.
He stressed that candidates who met the minimum cut-off but fell outside the available vacancies would not necessarily have failed the examination. “It does not mean that others did not pass; they met the minimum cut-off mark, but there are others who performed better than them. So we choose the best among those who are successful,” Ezeh said.
JUAC commends improvement
The Joint Union Action Congress (JUAC), FCT/FCDA, which monitored the examination, also commended the Commission for improvements in the organisation of the exercise.
The Secretary of JUAC, Comrade Abdullahi Umar Saleh, said the union’s monitoring team observed better arrangements compared with the previous examination.
He specifically cited reduced overcrowding, improved ventilation and adequate lighting at the examination venue. “There is a great improvement compared to the previous one. The venue was not overpopulated, and there is actually proper ventilation. I can see fans all over. There are well-lit points everywhere; it is looking bright,” Saleh said.
He said JUAC recognised that existing public service rules made promotion subject to the availability of vacancies.
However, he noted that teachers had been pushing for special consideration because of the essential nature of their profession. “Teachers claim that they are professionals and they need to be given preferential treatment, that FCTA or Civil Service Commission should look into their case and see how they can waive vacancy arrangement for them because they are giving essential services of impacting knowledge to the populace,” he said.
Saleh disclosed that discussions were ongoing between the FCT Administration, the Minister and the unions over the matter, adding that the Minister had directed the parties to maintain the status quo pending further deliberations.
He expressed hope that the process would ultimately produce an outcome favourable to participants. “We believe that subsequently there will be greater improvement even more than this. JUAC expects that, all things being equal, by the end of this examination period, every applicant who wrote the exam will go home smiling,” he said.
Security tightened
The FCTA Department of Security Services also confirmed that adequate security arrangements had been put in place for the exercise.
The Director of the department, Mr Adamu Gwary, said the necessary measures had been deployed to ensure the examination was conducted smoothly and without disruption.
Participants commend exercise
Some participants also expressed satisfaction with the organisation of the examination.
Temitope Kayode and Adama Zakari, both of the Abuja Infrastructure Investment Centre, commended the Commission for what they described as the smooth and orderly conduct of the exercise.
Their assessment was consistent with the observations of the Commission and JUAC, which both reported improved organisation compared with previous promotion examinations.
The 2026 exercise is expected to continue through next week, with thousands of FCT civil servants taking their turn in what the Commission says is part of its broader effort to institutionalise timely, transparent and merit-based career progression within the FCT public service.