Olaopa, Beyani move to strengthen African Public Service

The Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Nigeria, Prof. Tunji Olaopa and the President, Association of African Public Service Commissions (AAPSCOMS) and Chairman of the Civil Service Commission of Zambia, Dr Choolwe Beyani, have commenced moves to strengthen African public service.

The duo who met in Abuja on Tuesday, brainstormed on how to make public service in Africa respond to the demands of artificial intelligence and workforce flexibility.

Welcoming Beyani, Olaopa said that the meeting was significant for the professionalisation of public service commissions on the continent.

According to him, the visit by Beyani is a reminder of Nigeria’s prominent role in numerous regional bodies, a situation that President Bola Tinubu is gradually restoring.

Olaopa said that the resolve of President Bola Tinubu to give Nigeria its rightful place in Africa demanded that his lieutenants should follow suit in spirit and in truth.

According to him, he would have underscored the significance of the visit by extending invitations to other colleagues such as the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation of Nigeria, the FCT Civil Service Commission, and other heads of relevant agencies, if he was given adequate time.

He hoped that there would be another opportunity for a broader meeting to mainstream issues affecting public service commissions on the continent.

Olaopa recalled his contact with AAPSCOMMS in 2006 at a seminar organised by the UN-ECA for Public Service Commissioners across Africa where he was privileged to deliver a paper.

Stressing the need to review the principles by which public service in Africa has operated since the colonial days, Olaopa said: “All things considered, the CSC concept has undergone significant iterations that have created differentiated models across the Commonwealth of Nations. Indeed, the British CSC, which supplied the originating concept and framework, had itself witnessed significant rethinking, in a measure that compels African public services to do much more to bring extensive innovations and creativity to bear in reprofiling our different Service Commissions, so they do not become relics of history.

“The desirable rethinking is even more compelling, given the profound reformulation that human resource management is witnessing as a profession, in the face of the changing world of work, the factor of technology – artificial intelligence, robotics and all, in one breath; and the confounding sociology that the millennial and the Gen Z demographics are bringing to bear on extant practices especially in the public service namely, job security and lifetime career employment policies, etc. in another… These generations communicate their preferences for workforce flexibility and flexi-working, so they can pursue other rewarding professional interests. This is apart from the Covid-19 new normal which we all must necessarily institutionalise and build on.”

Olaopa continued: “There are numerous other defining issues introduced by public administration discursive application of the new public management reform perspectives as a global movement since the 1980s. The seminal conversation and praxis are still flying in the wind regarding how to deepen current shades of policies that delegate some of the Commission’s power to line managers/MDAs, and the associated need for clarity regarding revising guidelines for managing those delegated powers.

“Of course, the CSC, going by first principle, was conceived by the British as promoter and protector of the merit principle, and therefore, a critical gatekeeper of the public administration profession. Clearly, there is the need to revisit the underlying philosophy of CSC’s originating mandate, along with the strategies deployed to achieve it as pillar of public administration professionalism and, by extension, its alignment with countries’ diversity management policies

“The point in the foregoing, is to say that African Public Service Commissions’ community, through its continental association, has an important generational role to play to prepare our great profession for the unfolding 4th and 5th industrial revolution, while rewiring public administration for enhanced capability readiness, to support developmental African states which are badly required for African renaissance.”

Earlier, appreciating the role of Nigeria as one of the pioneers of AAPSCOMS which was established in 2008, Beyani said the public service commissions of Africa share a common vision.

Noting that the next general assembly of AAPSCOMS would hold on September 24, 2024, Beyani said that the body was created to provide a common platform for the commissions to promote and share best practices among, others.