Olaopa: How Civil Servants Can Actualise Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, yesterday outlined some measures civil servants could adopt to actualise the performance bonds they signed with President Bola Tinubu towards realising his Renewed Hope Agenda.
Olaopa spoke  at the public lecture marking the 2024 Civil Service Week held in Abuja.

In a goodwill message, Olaopa recalled that the African Union (AU), in designating the week as the  Public Service Week in 1994 in Tangier, Morocco,  provided platform to beam critical light on how the bar of professionalism and capability readiness of the civil service could be raised.
He congratulated Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, on her “commendable spirited and innovative reform initiatives through the implementation of the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (2021-2025).

According to Olaopa, to be in a position to build on current gains as the administrative reform progresses, “will require value-based leadership sophistication that draws from deep and nuanced out-of-the-box strategic thinking, and leadership by example.”

Olaopa said: “Why is it that, in spite of the many spirited civil service reform initiatives since 1999, the federal bureaucracy, on balance, seems to be declining in some vital performance indicators and parameters that are key to its overall effectiveness as the engine room of governance?.
The  professor of public administration noted that if civil servants get sufficiently innovative in resource-use efficiency, then they will be in a position to enter into significant productivity bargain-enabled enhanced pay and remuneration.

He added: “We would have gained enhanced bargaining leverage for better condition of service as motivation and incentives (monetary and non-monetary) required to attract talents and scarce skills into the service; thereby raising the prestige of our profession, and restoring government as employer of choice in the national economy.

“This in turn raises another relevant question: What would be the contingent changes to personnel policies, pay level, and operational cost ratios that are most cost-effective and consistent to achieve optimal productivity level in the public service and, by extension, the national economy?

“And what change management and capability enhancement strategy are in place to redress situations that will arise when Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are falling short in delivering on the performance bond that we signed with the FGN?”
According to Olaopa, from his vantage position as the service commission chair, he is fully available to collaborate in addressing the concerns “through sharing and learning and strategic partnership to take current reform programmes to the next level.”