………..assures AAPSCOM of support.
The Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa has explained that there was a need to revisit the underlying philosophy of the Civil Service Commission originating mandates with strategy deployed to achieve it in alignment with countries’ diversity management policies. He said the African Public Service Community through the continental association has an important intergenerational role in preparing the profession for the fourth and fifth industrial revolutions as AAPSCOM strives to revive itself.
Olaopa stated this when he received the Association of African Public Service Commissioners (AAPSCOM) led by the Chairperson of the Civil Service Commission of the Republic of Zambia, Dr. Choolwe Beyani with his team on an official visit to the Commission.
Chairman stated that the British conceived the Civil Service Commission going by its first principle as promoter and protector of merit principle, but more than any region in the world meritocracy is challenged in Africa.
According to him, rewiring of public administration for enhanced capability readiness to support African development will require capable and strategic re-profiling and intelligent public service that is heavily re-professionalized for Africa’s renaissance.
As he pledged his unalloyed support for the team on its task of building a virile African Public Service Association, Olaopa disclosed that what public administration was witnessing in the face of the changing world of work, the factor of technology, artificial intelligence and robotics as well as the emergence of new generation of public managers and the younger folks-the millennia and Gen-Z generations is that it has influenced public administration extant practices with new thinking and approach.
He added that millennial; “are interested in job security, they are not interested in lifetime career employment. I am recruited on level 8, I stayed till 35. I retired at 60. That is not their take. This generation has already communicated their preference for those who are following up on HR conversations both in the private sector and the industry. The preference they have is for workforce flexibility. They want to negotiate their time. They want flexi-working timing. So that they can pursue other rewarding things so that they do not confine to any particular job.”
The Chairman applauds the team’s efforts in reviving the association saying that such action deserves maximum support to ensure its utmost success so that the effort objectives will be achieved to the fullest extent.
Olaopa submitted that aligning the principle of merit to different countries’ diversity management policies was key to strengthening the core values of public administration in Africa.
He pointed out that the visit would start a thinking process to shape the African Civil Service by tapping from the wealth of experience of Africa’s public administration scholars saying that a new crop of public administration researchers and scholar-practitioners needed to be built.
Speaking earlier, Dr. Beyani appreciated the role Nigeria played as one of the pioneer members of the association when it was established in 2008. He emphasized that the objective of the association was to provide a common platform for African Public Service Commissions to promote and share best practices, promote professionalism, conduct research in human resources, public administration and management practices in order to enhance service delivery.
Beyani said the reason for their visit was to close the barriers created in 2019 where most contact details of members have been lost making a line of communication difficult with members. He stressed that the need to resurrect the association made them travel to Nigeria including using the visit to mobilize members for the upcoming General Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya; saying that it would be an avenue to rekindle the vision of the association and open further lines of connection and support for the association.
Dinner and exchange of gifts in honour of the AAPSCOM’s team that was graced by the Zambian High Commissioner in Nigeria followed later in the day.
Signed.
Taiwo Hassan
Head (Press & Public Relations).
