The Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, and the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation ( HCSF), Mrs Esther Didi Walson-Jack, on Thursday took a fresh step to deepen collaboration in their leadership of the civil service as they inaugurated a joint technical committee in Abuja .
The technical committee is an initiative of the FCSC and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) to harmonise positions on issues of common concern with a view to ensuring that the civil service is strengthened through optimal leadership.
The inauguration followed the
maiden OHCSF-FCSC Joint Retreat held on October 13, 2025 where issues of common concern were identified.
Olaopa said that the retreat provided an opportunity for an agreement “that a joint technical team be constituted to examine and thrash out the deep issues and technical design elements requiring researched interrogation and nuancing, so that a well- thought-out baseline report can be generated. The report will then form the basis for future periodic meetings and engagement where, through incremental improvement and sustained interrogation, the strained boundaries in the functional relationship between our two offices will be corrected within a dynamic that will crystallize a seamless working relationship and institutional partnership as we continue to discharge our responsibilities in providing leadership, strengthening competency-based human resource , career management and deepening and consolidating our shared gatekeeping responsibility to our cherished profession of public administration in Nigeria.”
According to Olaopa, the FCSC and the OHCSF are organizations that are distinct in establishment and structure, but which are nonetheless two sides of the same coin.Thus, for him, it takes deep knowledge of the working of the civil service and its governance to sufficiently appreciate the level and depth of the functional complementarity of their shared roles as the central management cum personnel agencies and gatekeepers for the profession of public administration and its community of practice and service in Nigeria.
He noted that when the reconstituted FCSC, otherwise called the 10th Commission, assumed office in December 2023, and with the benefit of their experience as career bureaucrats and expert public administration practitioners, what they witnessed was “an unhealthy rivalry, needless boundary protection, and in some cases and sadly, ostensible moves by each party to take over clearly defined powers and functions that should statutorily belong to the other in a subtle contest and unwarranted empire psyche.”
Worse still, he disclosed, the Public Service Rules (PSR), which is the administrative governance code for public administration in Nigeria was selectively amended without securing the critical input of core stakeholders, in a measure that created crippling distortions to the cherished internal management controls and checks and balances fundamentals that have sustained the civil service since the colonial era.
However, he noted that that there was a breath of fresh air with the emergence of Walson-Jack as the HCSF as she allowed room for collaboration between the OHCSF and the FCSC towards the correction of the identified anomalies.
“It eventually became obvious to our two institutions that window-dressing the rough edges and observed areas of functional misalignment and distortions will be less than reform to get the basics of the civil service gatekeeping and governance right. Consequently, we agreed on the need to have a common periodic platform for sustained engagement and dialogue in addressing such matters of conflict, preferably through understanding, shared passion and a structured framework that enables cross-fertilization of ideas, towards a harmonious working relationship, going forward”, Olaopa said.
Fortunately for the two offices, Olaopa stated, they had jointly signed on to own and align resources in implementing the OHCSF Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan – FCSSIP – (2021-2025) which just ended and are set to be relaunched, and the FCSC Strategic Plan (2026-2030).
While joining the HCSF in congratulating the members of the joint technical committee, Olaopa said that they had been selected largely on the basis of merit, considering their personal and professional knowledge and experience in the range of subject matters in question.
Thus, for him, no output less than a robust, innovative, forthright, implementable, and timely one in the best interest of the service was expected from them.
On her part, Walson-Jack who described Olaopa as a dependable ally in the development of the civil service said that the inauguration was a milestone in strengthening the service.
Noting that the joint committee was a direct outcome of the retreat, she said that it underscored the need for collaboration between her office and the FCSC.
Walson-Jack stated that the committee would translate insights into action and that resolutions would not only be documented but be implemented .
Consequently, she said that the work of the committee would contribute to building an efficient civil service that would drive development in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
