Prof. Tunji Olaopa: Building Institutions, And Public Service By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Since  former President Barack Obama alerted Africa to the deficit of strong institutions as the  bane of development on the continent,  the merit of his position  has  unremittingly  received  reification. The failure  of  an African nation to meet the developmental  aspirations of its citizens is not only attributable  to its   core  leadership but also its institutions.  Clearly , a measure of the trust citizens repose in their institutions is reflective  of the confidence they have in their leaders.

In most African  nations where the leadership problem is an ogre that is gnawing away  at  the citizens’  trust  in public institutions, the latter are commonly believed to be crude  extensions of   insouciant  national  managers  that  are ever-disposed to miring  the citizens in their immiseration.  Thus, the summation  of the performance of institutions constitutes  a basis for the assessment of a government by  the Ibrahim Index of African Governance,  and Transparency International Corruption Index, among others. Still, it is imperative to come to terms with  the  fact that the African continent is not entirely denuded of public institutions that are building   citizens’  confidence in them  and governance.

This  currently finds exemplification in  the Federal Civil Service Commission . The  leaders of the commission in the past presumably offered  their best  to serve their nation and compatriots. But there  remains  their    identification with the zeitgeist  besmeared with the persistent perception that the commission luxuriated in  the negation of the  public good. There  is  the perception that on their  watch, the commission became  a bastion for the travestization  of meritocracy as  the  beneficiaries of the discharge of its constitutional mandate of recruitment were peddlers of a huge   amount  of political, social and pecuniary influences at the detriment of  eminently eligible citizens . Worse still ,  with the collusion of some officials of the commission, the  plague of fake employment festered. Indeed , that there was corruption at the commission seems to be lent credence by the existence of fake employment letters that had been issued to people who were only found out years after they had been receiving salaries.

 But the above  malaise is  now being  consigned  to a definitely  fast-vanishing  era  in the  commission. A refreshing era has commenced   since the beginning of the 10th  board of the commission led by Prof. Tunji Olaopa. The commission is no longer a place plagued by the leakage of examination questions, and  promotion owing  to financial inducement . It has recorded a huge success in reinventing itself as a hub of credibility  in governance. It has become a place where  citizens’  matters are  decided without the apprehension that their interests that cater for equity would be unconscionably trumped.

The commission serves the citizens through  its three  constitutional responsibilities. These are recruitment, promotion and discipline. Through the effective discharge of these three responsibilities, the Olaopa’s leadership has restored credibility to the commission.  Olaopa’s success at the commission has brought into sharp relief that it is not a far-fetched possibility to make public institutions work. It has also shown that the factors that are responsible for his success can be replicated if the citizens desire to repudiate the memory of a nation where nothing works as  legendarily etched in public consciousness by Prof. John Pepper  Clark’s  poetic jeremiad.

Ultimately, public institutions can work if the core leadership epitomised by the president in the case of Nigeria has the will.  As regards Olaopa, the president demonstrated this  will by  appointing the right person to lead the commission. He could have given the appointment to his political supporter  who was the least qualified for it. But the president appointed Olaopa who in all ramifications is the best person for the job now. Olaopa thoroughly understands the civil service having worked there and risen to the peak as a permanent secretary.  He is a professor of public administration ,  a practitioner-teacher whose deep knowledge of public administration makes him to be able to  enrich the Nigerian experience with its location vis-a-vis the public services of advanced nations of the world . Olaopa has given expression to his love for the public service and his knowledge of it by describing himself as a reformer. He has devoted books to  public administration , the  most  recent of them being The  Unending Quest for Reform: An Intellectual Memoir.  Indeed, for  Olaopa, working as a civil servant is not just a means to providing food for his family. To him, public  service  is a priestly  calling  through which to  serve the people. Olaopa’s  preoccupation with making the country’s public service  to fit in the league of top-rated ones globally shares kinship with the patriotic fervour of the former Premier of the defunct Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who once observed that while his contemporaries were dissipating their energy and time on women of easy virtue, he was busy grappling with the problems of the nation and proffering solutions to them. As  Awolowo  tells  us: ” While  many men in power and public office are busy carousing in the midst of women of easy virtue and men of low morals, I, as a few others like me, am busy at my desk thinking about the problems of Nigeria and proffering solutions to them.” Olaopa  also reminds us of Barack Obama who before he became the president,  had sufficiently studied the challenges of the American society and  the outside world. As his wife, Michelle tells us in her famous autobiography, Becoming , Obama in his pre-White House days was so consumed with finding answers to the raging  questions of his time that he sometimes forgot the happenings in his immediate environment.  She writes: ” Barack, I’ve come to understand, is the sort of person who needs a hole , a closed-off little warren where he can read and write undisturbed”. Having  taken time to understand the challenges  and pathways  for the nation’s public service, Olaopa   sufficiently fits in the mould of the philosopher king  who is hallmarked by reason , knowledge and  a quest for justice and thus  the most suitable for public service in Plato’s republic.

 Olaopa is succeeding  because he definitely enjoys the support of the president. He  operates with  the confidence that underwrites an absence of the apprehension   that his strenuous efforts at the enthronement of  credibility, meritocracy and equity at the  commission might trigger blistering censure from the president.The president has given Olaopa the free hand to turn around the commission for optimal productivity.  Indeed, at the inauguration of the Olaopa leadership, President Bola Tinubu had given him the charge ” to competently facilitate the transformation, reorientation and digitization of the federal bureaucracy to enable, and not stifle , growth and enhance private sector participation in the development of the Nigerian economy”   . Thankfully, the president  understands that the commission is a public institution that should not be subject to political interference. His non-interference  averts the  danger  of  nurturing a public institution that is blighted  by mediocrity in public service.

Before  Olaopa’s appointment  as the chairman of the commission, he was  enjoying his work as a professor of public administration.  He was not a political hustler  who would jostle to get  a position.  In local  parlance, he had and still has another address or other addresses. Thus, it is not surprising that he carries out his  official responsibilities with  a certain Napoleonic chutzpah.We are reminded of Napoleon who after conquering and  losing half of the world,  he spent his last days at St. Helena . In a moment of defiance at his gaoler who thought he he held the power of life and death over him, Napoleon told him: ” You can dispose of my life as you please,  but not of my heart. That is still as proud as on this rock as it was when all Europe was awaiting my orders. ” If we want public institutions to work, we should not appoint people to  them as a means of political patronage. Such appointees should have the experience and confidence to discharge their responsibilities effectively

Equally important is that  apart  from the leader of the public institution, those who manage it with him should  be eminently qualified. This is the case of Olaopa and his commission.  He is succeeding because the president equally appointed members of the board who are very qualified. On the board of the commission  are a former  minister and  an ambassador, erstwhile heads of service at the state level,  state commissioners , lawyers , engineers and doctors.  These are people who obviously possess the experience and confidence  to think  for themselves and guard against  manipulation  to serve interests outside those of the state.This is why in the discharge of the commission’s responsibilities, so much debate goes into arriving at decisions.  The issues affecting the employment of citizens, their career  progression and discipline are thoroughly debated to ensure that the  interests of equity and meritocracy are duly served. This is why  a  meeting of  the commission would normally last from morning till evening.  Thus, in the  matters of recruitment, promotion and discipline  of civil servants, various aspects  such as the legal and moral  are considered. No arbitrary interest is served.

With Olaopa and his team  of federal commissioners at the helm of the Federal Civil Service Commission,  the public  and particularly civil servants can  inhale fresh air of the  activation of a slew of guardrails that would usher the  nation’s public service into a golden age marked by credibility, equity and meritocracy.

Onomuakpokpo, PhD, Ex-Acting Editor,  The Guardian and  Ex-Group Managing Editor/OP-ED Editor, The Daily Times, is the Special Assistant on Strategic Communications to the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission.