The Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, says the redemption of civil service cannot be left to chance as well as to the current corps of service leadership alone.
He said the redemption falls on the critical mass of professionals – public/civil servants, scholars/academics, development practitioners, etc., with the leadership and central coordination nodal points taking the lead in jumpstarting required movement to arrest the sabotage of the service and restore its professionalism.
Olaopa stated this in his office during a courtesy visit by Vice President, African Association of Public Administration and Management (AAPAM), Mr. Dada, Joseph Olugbenga, mni.
According to Olaopa, the core of administrative reform of the civil service since he joined the reform struggle in 1995 as Deputy Secretary, Ayida White Paper Panel in the Presidency has been to re-professionalize the public administration practice in Nigeria while strengthening the role of the gatekeepers of the profession. He emphasized that it was professionalism that will reverse the increasingly diminishing status of civil service that we have signed up to as our career, profession and calling.
As he revered and eulogized efforts of the past administrative icons of the profession like Simeon Adebos, the Udojis, Abdul-Aziz Attah, Ayida, Asiodu, Ahmed Joda, etc. which he saw as mentors. He disclosed that people that join the service do so for other reasons other than desire for professionalism, saying civil service jobs are most often the last on any serious professional’s preference list.
He asserts that solution framework to tackle challenges confronting Federal Service must be the one that goes beyond the rhetoric. He explained that civil service that began as honourable and prestigious calling with its embedded professionalism has now reached a degraded state used as a derision for government non-performance.
He added that: “profession without professional gatekeepers that ensures that the ideals and objectives of the profession are always kept under constant vigilance, has only created free entry routes for charlatans, impostors and opportunists, and can hardly gain respect, prestige and prominence it deserves”.
He advised that administration and management associations like NAPAM, AAPAM, CAFRAD, CORFEPS and their states and chapters to work together in the mission to revitalize that grand legacy that the founding fathers of the profession gave us in terms of National Association for Public Administration and Management (NAPAM).
He disclosed that body of concerned experts and stakeholders should be brought back to provide a critical platform where ideas, frameworks, models, dynamics and paradigms are articulated, rearticulated, and disseminated.
Speaking earlier, the Vice President of the Association, Mr. Dada, Joseph Olugbenga congratulated the Hon. Chairman for his appointment saying that he is part of the AAPAM family. Vice President said his visit was to urge the Hon. Chairman to help AAPAM in the revival of its National Chapter in Nigeria by leveraging on Olaopa’s working-relations with Head of Service of the Federation and other key stakeholders.
Dada said the new Executives of AAPAM holds Nigeria in high esteem. He disclosed that AAPAM was created in 1971 by Committee of Permanent Secretaries responsible for public administration in Africa.
He disclosed that AAPAM misses leadership role of Nigeria in ensuring the survival of AAPAM and would want to see Nigeria take its rightful place as a leader in AAPAM.
Signed:
Taiwo Hassan
Head (Press & Public Relations).
