Two Epic Years, One Enduring Legacy: Didi Esther Walson-Jack’s ‘EPIC’ Civil Service Reform Era

The two-year tenure of Mrs Didi Esther Walson-Jack, OON, mni, as Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, from August 2024 to August 2026, will be remembered not simply for the policies announced or initiatives launched, but for the determined effort to translate reform commitments into measurable institutional outcomes.

Indeed, the scorecard of her stewardship, aptly titled “Two Years of Reform, Delivery and Institutional Renewal,” offers perhaps the clearest way to assess the Walson-Jack era. Its figures tell a story of a Civil Service being pushed towards greater efficiency, digitalisation, professionalisation, innovation and attention to the welfare of its workforce.

At the centre of that story was her vision of an EPIC Civil Service — Efficient, Productive, Incorruptible and Citizen-Centred. That vision became the organising philosophy of a tenure that sought to accelerate implementation and close-out of the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021–2025 (FCSSIP25), while laying the foundation for FCSSIP 2026–2030.

From Reform Promises to Measurable Delivery

The most compelling feature of the Walson-Jack stewardship is the breadth of implementation. The scorecard records that 38 MDAs were brought onto digitised work processes through deployment of the 1-Gov Enterprise Content Management platform.

That digital transition was complemented by more than 120,000 active GovMail accounts, expanding access to official government email from fewer than 20,000 officers in August 2024 to more than 116,000 accounts by August 2026. The OHCSF itself was moved onto the 1Gov Cloud Integrated Digital Workplace, bringing GovMail, InMail, GovDrive and GovConference into an integrated environment.

Digitalisation was accompanied by an effort to preserve and democratise institutional knowledge. More than 1,000 Civil Service circulars were digitised, creating an online compendium covering circulars issued since 1995. Five editions of Federal Public Service Live were also delivered as a platform for direct communication between public servants and the Head of the Civil Service.

Then there is the figure of 15,800 civil servants trained in digital skills through the NITDA Digital Literacy for All initiative. Service-Wise GPT pushed the frontier further, with 68 per cent reported usage among surveyed officers and more than 75,000 conversations with the AI-powered Civil Service knowledge platform.

A Reform Agenda That Remembered the Worker

It would be easy to describe Walson-Jack’s tenure solely in terms of digital transformation. That would miss another defining element: the deliberate effort to place the civil servant at the centre of reform. The scorecard documents interventions addressing welfare, professional development and career progression.

Perhaps the most consequential was the approval of an exit benefit equivalent to 100 per cent of annual emoluments for eligible retiring officers, effective from January 2026. Coming more than two decades after the introduction of the Contributory Pension Scheme, the measure represented a significant intervention in retirement security.

There was also the ₦10 billion housing loan intervention, designed to expand access to affordable home ownership for Federal Government employees through the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board.

The scorecard further records a 40 per cent increase in peculiar allowances for officers under CONPSS and CONRAISS, alongside improvements in selected duty-related allowances and benefits, while approval was secured for 100 per cent Duty Tour Allowance for officers participating in approved capacity-development programmes at MDAs.

Career progression was not neglected. 670 newly promoted directors were recognised: 332 promoted in 2024 and 338 in 2026. A Personnel Audit and Skills Gap Analysis covering over 59,000 officers also provided a stronger evidence base for workforce planning and deployment.

Then came an intervention that captured the practical side of the welfare agenda: 50 mass-transit buses for Federal Civil Servants, introduced in August 2026 under the Renewed Hope initiative. For workers facing daily commuting pressures, this was reform made tangible.

Building Institutions, Leadership and Innovation

The Walson-Jack years also reflected an understanding that sustainable reform cannot depend on the personality of the Head of Service. Institutions must be strengthened to carry reforms forward.

The scorecard records four Civil Service Reform Instruments, including the Rewards and Recognition Policy, Civil Service Mentoring Policy, Communication Style Manual, and Incentives and Consequence Management System Policy and Guidelines.

There were also four high-level leadership retreats, bringing together Permanent Secretaries and other senior leaders to align around Civil Service reform priorities. The introduction of Weekly PMS Day made performance management a regular service-wide priority.

Seven FCSSIP25 Reform War Rooms were established to accelerate implementation, monitor progress and drive measurable results.

The innovation agenda was equally deliberate. Two editions of the Public Service Innovation Competition attracted 155 entries from 56 Civil Service teams, while a N5 million Innovation Star Prize was awarded to a winning team. A Ministerial Innovation Challenge was also introduced to extend the innovation agenda into MDAs.

The scorecard also records 17 senior leadership appointments and the institutional transition associated with the appointment of new Permanent Secretaries and the Accountant-General of the Federation.

Beyond Nigeria, the Walson-Jack administration expanded the international profile of the Federal Civil Service. The two International Civil Service Conferences in 2025 and 2026 brought together more than 200 speakers and resource persons, with 16 countries represented at the 2026 edition. The inaugural conference attracted more than 3,000 delegates, while the 2026 edition exceeded 5,000 participants.

A Truly EPIC Exit

Perhaps the most appropriate way to evaluate Mrs Walson-Jack’s tenure is to return to the acronym that defined her vision: EPIC — Efficient, Productive, Incorruptible and Citizen-Centred.

Efficiency is reflected in digitised workflows, 1Gov Cloud and more than 120,000 GovMail accounts. Productivity is reflected in performance management, digital-skills training, the Personnel Audit and Skills Gap Analysis, leadership development and innovation programmes.

Incorruptibility requires institutions, systems and professional standards that reduce discretion and strengthen accountability. The reforms in performance management, rewards and recognition, consequence management and institutional processes were part of that architecture.

And citizen-centredness means remembering that the Civil Service exists ultimately to serve Nigerians. It is reflected not only in service-delivery rhetoric but also in the welfare of the civil servant who delivers that service.

There is something particularly fitting about the fact that Walson-Jack’s tenure ended with a scorecard rather than merely a farewell speech. A scorecard invites judgment. It says: this is what we promised; this is what we delivered; this is what remains to be built. That is a healthy culture for public administration.

Her two years were too short to solve every structural challenge confronting Nigeria’s Civil Service. But the evidence in the scorecard demonstrates a tenure focused on turning reform into delivery and delivery into institutional memory.

Her greatest legacy may therefore not be any single programme: not the digital platforms, the AI tool, the housing intervention, the welfare measures, the innovation competitions or the mass-transit buses. It may be the culture of measurable reform that ties them together.

The challenge before her successor, Mr Abel Olumuyiwa Enitan, is therefore not to start again, but to consolidate, deepen and institutionalise the gains.

Mrs Didi Esther Walson-Jack leaves office after 34 years of public service, but she leaves something more valuable than longevity: an institutional footprint. She came with a mandate to accelerate transformation. She leaves behind systems, policies, platforms, trained people, welfare interventions and a reform agenda for the next generation.

That is an EPIC exit for an icon.