By Barth Ikiebe
The Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, FCSC, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, says that civil service reform is not something that can be sliced but an all stakeholders’ affairs. Prof Olaopa noted that no country can reform without harnessing the institutional memory of its “community of practice” which Council of Retired Federal Permanent Secretaries (CORFEPS) is part of.
The Chairman, FCSC made this known on Wednesday when the Executive Committee of the Council of Retired Federal Permanent Secretaries (CORFEPS) paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja.
He commended CORFEPS National Executive led by Former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and Nat. Chairman of CORFEPS, Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed for his leadership and efforts in making the organisation a rallying point for all retired permanent secretaries.
Olaopa said that civil service needs re-engineering and all hands must be on deck to make this happen, adding that reforms in the civil service is not a matter of competition between the Commission and Head of Civil Service but synergy for the reform to work.
He told the gathering that reform in the civil service is not successful because basic element that ought to sustain it has collapsed, saying that when the foundation is destroyed, reform cannot be effective.
“Hence, there were question marks regarding the implementation of the merit system and its application in the implementation of the federal character policy.”
He also added that because of recruitment embargo in the Civil service there were gaps in many technical jobs; and regularization via upgrading was being used in the service to get around the situation in MDAs.
According to him, there were outstanding reform issues with stagnation and promotion block that deny officers professional fulfilment in their career service.
Olaopa noted that “breakdown of manpower forecasting and succession planning revolves round the issues of abuse of delegated HRM powers to MDAs that challenges the FCSC to beef up its oversight responsibilities and internal control mechanisms as well as the distortionary Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER) still being used in the service instead of the new performance management system that the service was trying to institutionalize.
Olaopa informed the visitors that the Commission understood issues raised by them including other issues the Commission itself has observed and these are carefully being packaged into what will soon debut as the 5-year strategic plan of the Commission. He also intimated the gathering that the National Council for Civil Service Commissions in Nigeria which held at Katsina State in 2024 were already connecting States’ CSCs to this transformation journey to enable sharing, learning and sustained peer review.
He disclosed that CORFEPS would participate in the implementation of the revised FCSC Repositioning Plan and Strategic Plan when it comes on-stream.
Speaking earlier, Yayale said that part of the reasons for the visit to the Commission was to congratulate the Hon. Chairman for his merit-based and well-deserved appointment, adding that Prof. Olaopa was one of them as a retired Permanent Secretary.
Yayale sought Olaopa support in the welfare of retired permanent secretary; saying that it will go a long way in improving their condition after service.
As Yayale called Olaopa a civil service personified, he assured him of CORFEPS technical support as he is gradually reforming the Commission and also trying to reinvent ethics in the service, adding that notwithstanding the deployment of ICT, civil service have not internalize ethics.
