Abel Olumuyiwa Enitan Sworn In as Nigeria’s New Head of Civil Service
President Bola Tinubu on Thursday, August 27, 2026, formally swore in Abel Olumuyiwa Enitan as the new Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), completing the transition of leadership at the top of Nigeria’s federal bureaucracy. The brief ceremony took place at the State House in Abuja, with Enitan assuming responsibility as the nation’s chief administrative officer.
Enitan succeeds Didi Esther Walson-Jack, who retired after attaining the mandatory civil service retirement age of 60. President Tinubu had announced Enitan’s appointment on August 19, 2026, naming him as the successor a little over a week before his assumption of office took formal effect on August 27. Ahead of the swearing-in, the new Head of Service and his predecessor were received by President Tinubu at the State House on Friday, August 21, as part of preparations for what officials described as a seamless leadership transition.
The swearing-in ceremony was attended by several senior officials, including Walson-Jack and her husband, Nimi Walson-Jack; Enitan’s wife, Olawunmi Ololade Enitan; and the Permanent Secretary of the State House. Later the same day, Walson-Jack and Enitan formally signed handover documents, with the outgoing Head of Service presenting her handover note, said to cover her tenure from August 14, 2024, to August 27, 2026, before the two exchanged a handshake to mark the transfer of responsibilities.
Speaking at the ceremony, President Tinubu congratulated Enitan and urged him to uphold the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, accountability and efficiency across the Nigerian Civil Service. In announcing the appointment earlier in the month, the president had described Enitan as bringing considerable institutional experience and a deep understanding of how the Federal Civil Service operates to his new role, charging him with consolidating ongoing reforms, deepening professionalism and efficiency, and building a more effective and responsive civil service.
Enitan, an indigene of Osun State, was born on December 12, 1966. He attended Ajibode Grammar School in Ibadan and the College of Arts and Science in Ile-Ife, before earning a Bachelor’s degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Lagos in 1988, and later obtaining a Master’s degree in Public Policy Analysis from Nasarawa State University, Keffi, in 2015.
He joined the Federal Civil Service in 1998 as a Senior Operations Officer with the now-defunct Family Economic Advancement Programme. His career subsequently took him through several strategic government institutions, including the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, the Ministry of Police Affairs, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, and the Office of the Vice President, where he served as Chief Administrative Officer and rose to the position of Director between 2010 and 2018. He went on to serve as Permanent Secretary for seven years and seven months, most recently at the Federal Ministry of Education, before his appointment as Head of Service, having held the position of most senior Permanent Secretary within the Federal Civil Service at the time of his elevation.
With Thursday’s ceremony, the leadership transition at the helm of Nigeria’s federal civil service has been formally completed, positioning Enitan to drive the administration’s ongoing public service reform agenda in the months ahead.
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