Why Civil Service Civil Service System has remained Stagnant since the First Republic; by ex-Perm Sec.

Dr Tunji Olaopa

The immediate past Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communication Technology, Dr Tunji Olaopa, has identified the pitfalls in the civil service system, which may hinder the changes that Nigerians want desperately in governance

Olaopa explained that the civil service system has remained stagnant since the First Republic in spite of the many changes that institutions of government have gone through.

According to him, the colonial rulers laid the theoretical and value foundation for the civil service but the nation has refused to undertake a deconstruction of the system to reflect the changes which government institutions have gone through since then.

The stagnancy, Olaopa said, makes the civil service incongruent with modern governance system to drive the change agenda of the current President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Olaopa spoke while addressing reporters in Ibadan on the establishment of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy, which he said was established to fill the gap.

He said: “A lot of the things we practise in government lack theoretical basis when talking about public sector management system.

“They are more like common sense. A whole lot of these were conceived properly in the First Republic because the colonial administrative system taught the first generation, brought them up in the knowledge of what the parameters are what you can call the theoretical and value foundation for the civil service institutions.

“But even the institutions have changed over time. Yet, we still carry on based largely on experience, rarely rigorously deconstructing the institutions to reflect the changes.

“These are the factors constraining effectiveness of some of these institutions.” (The Nation)