By Cross Udo, Abuja
Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Prof Tunji Olaopa, yesterday said the first charge of the Commission under him will be to make a scapegoat of corrupt elements soiling the service’s image.
Olaopa hinted at this while speaking to journalists after his swearing-in as Chairman of the FCSC, along with eleven other members of the Commission.
President Bola Tinubu had performed a swearing-in ceremony for the FCSC members as well as the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) earlier in the day, ahead of the week’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the State House, Abuja.
However, responding to a question about what he intended to do about reports and cases of corruption in the civil service, Olaopa, who said he was disturbed by the situation, said he would be working with security and law enforcement agencies in the process of redeeming the service’s image.
“Certainly it’s very disturbing. The commission, by its conception, is supposed to be a beacon of integrity, and those that founded, our predecessors in the glorious days of the service, gave Civil Service Commission a great name.
“So I’m disturbed by the whole cash-and-carry reputation that the commission… and for me, we’ll do everything possible, in collaboration with some of the intelligence and security agencies, to make a few scapegoats and communicate a new image for the Service Commission.
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“That will be our first charge and we would all be committed to bringing back values, institutional values, to the public service of Nigeria,” he said.
“The charge given to us indicates that the administration has put the Civil Service in the Renewed Hope Agenda. So there is a specific charge for every stakeholder, including the Office of the Head of Service, to collaborate, to come to the sense that the Civil Service has challenges and that we need to reposition.
“We need to beef up the capability readiness, we need to modernise by deploying technology. We need to reinstitute professionalism and competency-based human resource management. We need to move this Civil Service to a position where they can help governments to deliver on their agenda and that we are poised to be able to do.
“From the end of the Civil Service Commission, we want to rebrand this commission. We want a commission that represents the integrity phase of the Civil Service. We want a commission that promotes the cherished values of the public service in everything that it does,” he said.
Also speaking to journalists, the new ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu, said he would be leading the Commission by example, just as he hopes to work to realize the Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Tinubu swore in Aliyu as the new Chairman of ICPC and Olaopa as FCSC, along with eleven other members of the Commission.
According to a citation read by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, the new ICPC Chairman served as the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Jigsaw State, between 2019 and 2023.
The new Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Olaopa, from Oyo State, is an academic and former Permanent Secretary, who has had his stint both at the university and served as Permanent Secretary across five ministries.
Those sworn in for the FCSC include members representing Adamawa, Gombe, and Taraba, Dr. Daudu Jalo, Gekpe Isu (Akwa Ibom and Cross River), Dr. Chamberlain Nwele (Anambra, Ebonyi, and Enugu), Rufus Godwins (Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa), Dr. Adamu Hussein ( Niger and the FCT) and Aminu Nabegu (Jigawa and Kano).
Others are Hindatu Abdullahi (Kaduna and Katsina), Shehu Aliyu (Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara), Odekunle Aduke (Kogi and Kwara), Jide Jimoh (Lagos and Ogun) and Dr. Festus Oyebade (Osun and Oyo).
