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By Uche Henry and Ajiri Daniels, Abuja
In a bid to support and contribute to the advancement of the Federal Civil Service, the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) is advocating for a true professionalism in Human Resource Management in the federal civil service of Nigeria.
At a courtesy visit by CIPM led by its President & Chairman of the Governing Council, Mr. Olusegun Mojeed, to the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) in Abuja, Professor Tunji Olaopa, Mr. Mojeed said the visit was in response to the memorandum issued by the Office of the Head of Service of the federation, articulating a visionary strategy for the professionalization of Human Resource Management in the Federal Civil Service.
The CIPM President recognized that the initiative was a strategy aimed at streamlining the practice of human resource management and related departments service-wide to foster excellence, efficiency, and professionalism within the public service, hence the inevitability of CIPM taking the lead to help achieve desired objectives.
“The directive mandating professional certification as a pre-condition for deployment to or taking up directorate-level roles in any HR-related department is a testament to the Commission’s dedication to elevating the standards of Human Resource Management in Nigeria. It is a commendable stride, and it underscores the importance of aligning our human capital practices with international best standards, an objective that resonates deeply with the CIPM,” the CIPM boss asserted.
Mojeed revealed that CIPM impacts on the Human Resource landscape in Nigeria have been profound and transformative. Through its rigorous certification processes, extensive education and training programmes, and unwavering commitment to professional development, the Institute has cultivated a cadre of HR professionals who exemplify the highest standards of competence and integrity.
“Our continuous engagement with government agencies, private sector organizations, and other stakeholders has allowed us to play a crucial role in shaping HR policies, regulations, and practices across the country.
“We have collaborated with the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation on Performance Management and the current proposal on capacity building is awaiting approval. We have an MoU with the Nigerian Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS).”
CIPM president who invited FCSC Chief to be a distinguished guest speaker at the upcoming CIPM International Conference and Exhibition in October, stressed that as the Institute moves forward in implementing the directive on professional certification for Directorate-level roles in HR-related departments, it would continue to offer unwavering support in providing resources, expertise, and collaboration to facilitate the seamless implementation of the professional certification directive.
He added that CIPM offers a range of professional development programmes, workshops, and resources that align with the evolving needs of the HR profession, noting that its 2024 International Conference and Exhibition would see industry leaders, policymakers, and professionals from across the globe, providing a platform for enriching discussions, networking, and knowledge exchange.
“Your insights and perspective would undoubtedly contribute immensely to the discourse on the future of Human Resource Management in our dynamic and evolving landscape. Together, with a shared vision and collaborative efforts, we can elevate the standards of HR practices in the federal civil service, ensuring efficiency, competency, and ethical conduct.
“Our Institute is honoured to be your partner on this transformative journey, and we look forward to a future where the Federal Civil Service sets a benchmark for excellence in Personnel and Human Resource management,” he envisaged.
In response, the Chairman of FCSC, Tunji Olaopa, said he had longed for the advancement of Human Capital Development in partnership with CIPM to raise the bar of HRM practice in the public sector in Nigeria.
The professor of Public Policy said he initiated a rapid assessment that should inform a baseline set of reform ideas for purposes of rolling out the FCSC reform programs which will in turn be harnessed to troubleshoot the ongoing reform of the federal bureaucracy.
According to him, all are geared towards reforming the past and ongoing reforms, and strengthening, consolidating and positioning them to ignite required systemic shifts to birth a new generations of public managers imbued with intellectual substance, work culture, incentives, professionalism and a reinvented culture of accountability required to operate in the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) globalized policy space in which the renewed hope agenda of the federal government will have to catapult Nigeria to greatness.
“The finding from the FCSC ongoing rapid assessment is most revealing, and will call for significant rethinking and deepening of ongoing reforms especially as they touch on the core mandates of the Commission as the HR hub for HR professionalism of Nigeria.
“I am not in a position to unveil the findings now until I have briefed the President. What I will say clearly is that going forward, the breakdown of competency-based HRM practices and the breakdown of defining internal management control system like manpower/ succession planning, organization and method (O&M) system, treasury control of establishment, staff audit system controls to govern the size and growth of the workforce, with firm rules and regulations on the floating and the winding up of agencies set up from time to time to achieve specific objectives etc. in the federal bureaucracy has done incalculable damage to the working of the Weberian administrative systems fundamentals undergirding the civil service operations.”
He maintained that if the Commission did not go back to the basics to fix those structural elements of public administration, all the reforms that they would be implementing would amount to engrafting the engine of Rolls Royce on what is at best the engine of a Beatle car.
“If we, however, succeed in restoring the basic system and structures along with the values ingrained in competency-based meritocratic HRM practices, the required administrative and cultural adjustments will happen in no time, and we can then build on that foundation—a new 21st century modernized, digitized and value-based public administration system that will seamlessly drive the public sector’s World of Work into the 4th and 5th industrial revolution era.
“With that, the renewed hope agenda of the federal government will have the veritable policy implementation backend to give life, which a capable developmental state requires to take Nigeria to its place with destiny, in the next four years,” he affirmed.
