Tunji Olaopa, currently the Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, is a retired Federal permanent secretary and professor of public administration and public policy. A scholar-practitioner with research focus in policy implementation research and public service institutional reform, Olaopa draws from the complimentary strength of public administration scholarship and public service practice of about 40 years to build his portfolio of expertise and experience in a) the design and implementation of civil service reforms and their change management; b) policy analysis, sector diagnosis and strategic planning; c) community cum social mobilisation and management of communication strategy; e) preparation and supervision of technical assistance projects; e) strategic human resource management, training needs and impact assessment; f) learning and knowledge management; g) public policy, programme and project management; h) core bureaucratic skills in public administration and expertise in development planning, management of the policy process, service delivery and regulatory control; i) management of think tanks, etc.
Prof. Olaopa started his career as a researcher in consulting service and graduate assistant before joining the Federal Public Service in 1988. At the request of the then President and Commander-in-Chief, General Ibrahim Babangida, Olaopa was deployed as a Speech Writer and Chief Policy Analyst in 1992 to Office of the President, State House, Abuja. He thereafter served the Federal Government in many capacities in the Presidency; as Deputy Director, Head of Policy Division and Coordinator, Education Sector Analysis (ESA) in the Federal Ministry of Education; Technical Head of the Public Service Reform Strategy Team in the Management Services Office, and Director of Programmes, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), among numerous other assignments.
He has served as facilitator at numerous seminars, conferences and training programmes all around the globe, including the Lagos Business School, Kennedy School of Government at Havard University, the Royal Institute for Public Administration, Lee Kwan Yee Policy Institute, Singapore, and Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand . He has also served on several national, continental and global expert teams.
Tunji Olaopa is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria (IMC-N) and of Strategic Management Institute of Nigeria, and recipient of many awards and honours including:
– The 2015 Nigerian National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM);
– Dr. Kwame Nkrumah African Distinguished Public Service Order of Merit Award;
– Thabo Mbeki Award for Distinguished Public Service and Scholarship;
– One of 50 Nigerians of Integrity of the Guardian newspaper;
– University of Ibadan 70th Anniversary Lifetime Achievement Award;
– Outstanding Achiever Awards of the Nigeria’s Historical Society and Nigerian Economic Society; and
– One of the 50 Most Exemplary Alumnae of the University of Ibadan
Olaopa retired from the Federal Civil Service as Permanent Secretary in November, 2015 having served in that capacity from 2010 in various Ministries, Departments and Extra-Ministerial Departments and Agencies including; Career Management Office, Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, State House, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Federal Ministry of Youth Development and Federal Ministry of Communication Technology. He then returned to the university as an academic and was appointed professor in 2018.
He is the Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP), a Think Tank dedicated to research and consultancy in support of governance and Public Policy. He has published over a dozen major books on Governance and Public Sector Reforms, dozens of monographs, vast publications in scholarly peer reviewed journals and hundreds of syndicated opinion articles as a newspaper columnist.
Prof. Tunji Olaopa was a Directing staff at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, Plateau State before his current appointment as Honourable Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission. He is married and blessed with three grown up children.
