• FCSC chair pledges more excellent service
The Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has promised to offer more excellent service to the public.
Olaopa spoke yesterday when the Oyo State government gave him the state’s Merit Award.
In a letter conveying his nomination as a recipient of the award to mark the golden jubilee of the state’s creation, the government said he was being honoured for his “selfless service to the growth and development of Oyo State and for ably representing the state on the world stage”.
In his acceptance of the award, which was conferred at an event hosted by Governor Seyi Makinde at the Government House, Agodi, Ibadan, Olaopa acknowledged what he called the subtext of the recognition of his modest accomplishments.
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These, the FCSC chairman said, were meant to keep up his “unfailing efforts in pushing the boundaries of institutional and governance reforms that will connect, for example, the Oyo State public administration system to the larger federal system in terms of delivering the dividends of democratic development that the citizens of Oyo State need so badly, to make life better for them”.
On behalf of himself, the Afijio and Awe community and the Olaopa family, the FCSC chairman expressed appreciation to “our leader, the indefatigable Governor Seyi Makinde” and his team for considering him worthy of the recognition.
Expressing his determination to be of more service to the state and be a source of inspiration for its development, Olaopa offered what he called a “solemn promise to you, dear Excellency, that I will not stop working to keep pushing Oyo State ahead in the frontier of excellence”.
The FCSC chairman said he had every reason to be proud of his origin as an indigene of Oyo State.
He said: “No matter what one has gone on to achieve in life, one has every reason to be proud to have come from Oyo State for many reasons.”
Listing his reasons for showing gratitude for the award, the former Federal Permanent Secretary and professor of Public Administration noted that Oyo State “is a land of historical legacies, cultural heritage, and sociopolitical dynamics that stand it out as a formidable context of development in the whole of the Southwest Nigeria”.
He added: “When we talk of the glorious days of governance and of the civil service, it is the Southwest headquartered in Oyo State that is being referenced – standing tall as the Pacesetter State, a state of many firsts; a state like no other.
“The reason that ‘aji se bi Oyo la n ri, Oyo ki i se baba eni kokan’ has such a deep meaning that resonates with most indigenes.
“From the collective responsibilities of past leaders —traditional and political — to the current and exemplary leadership of the incumbent governor, Oyo State has consistently been pushed through the trajectory of internal development in all ramifications that make it truly the ‘Pacesetter State’ indeed.
“However, to set the pace demands that one must always be deploying frontier, thinking that puts the state ahead in terms of creative development initiatives.”
According to him, it is remarkable that Oyo State has benefited on average from committed leaders since it was created in 1976.
Olaopa hailed Governor Makinde for sustaining the developmental orientation with significant evidence of infrastructural progress to show for it.
The FCSC chairman urged Oyo as the lead state in the Southwest, to demonstrate being a pacesetter in creativity in leveraging inter-state partnerships to harness economies of scale, deepen infrastructural progress and restore the Southwest as an economic corridor in the context of fiscal federalism in Nigeria.
