Tinubu moves to reform civil service for development of Nigerian economy

President Bola Tinubu has perfected plans to reform the civil service to enhance private sector participation in the development of the Nigerian economy.

This was made known by the Chairman of Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, on Wednesday at the final leg of the maiden interactive session with staff of the Commission.

Olaopa explained that Tinubu expects the leadership of the Commission to facilitate the transformation, reorientation, and digitization of the federal bureaucracy to enable enhanced private sector participation in the development of the Nigerian economy in tandem with the Renewed Hope Agenda.

He stated that the Commission would work in collaboration with the relevant public offices to achieve the transformation, adding that public officials operating at the core of the policy process would necessarily be determined not just by seniority but through a talent management dynamic that puts greater weight on authority of knowledge and professional expertise.

Outlining the agenda of the reform, Olaopa said ” We believe that restoring confidence in the capacity of the public service to transform the lives of Nigerians requires robust action with a fresh start from HR accounting. If the public service accounts for 20% of national employment and its annual wage bill alone is 15% of GDP, then Nigerians have the right to demand from us that the public service must account for tangible returns on such huge investments on it before it can justifiably demand for enhanced conditions of service.

” The Commission’s recruitment modality and promotion must become the baseline for transforming the IQ of the public service in creative ways to address the competence and skills deficits and for talent management and leadership pipelining. This means that the reform must restore the reputation of the service as the preferred employer in attracting, managing and retaining talents and skills. We will strengthen human resource planning and the entrance assessment process to ensure that recruitment meets strategic staffing needs and is based on merit. We will review and upgrade career management systems and processes, including schemes of service, job descriptions, deployments and records-keeping”.

He added ” The Oronsaye Report constitutes a significant first condition in reflecting on and executing the cost of governance reform that the government requires to effect the productivity paradigm shift.

“But it requires constitutional, legislative and administrative diligence and caution. This is because any haphazard implementation of the mergers, acquisition and eliminations of parastatals recommended by the Oronsaye Report, if not properly managed, will result in the collapse of an already fragile administrative system.

“One immediate consequence of the cost of governance reform will be the need to conduct a rigorous public expenditure review (PER). The results of such broad PER will then be utilized to determine new budget ceilings for each ministry and agencies within a medium-term expenditure framework.

” Like I keep saying, we are at a juncture where the tripartite social partners need a strategic partnership that promotes industrial harmony and enables the government to dismantle some of the binding constraints that have hampered problem-solving, policy implementation impact and real inclusive development in Nigeria.

“Such no-holds-barred dialogue of the tripartite partners must address the conundrum of a federal bureaucratic workforce wherein ‘too many people do nothing, too many do too little, and too few do too much’ as a condition precedent to instituting a new competency-based human resource management in the Federal civil service”.