Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Tunji Olaopa
Jaiyeola Andrews and Damilola Oyedele in Abuja
Reform has been identified as a veritable fulcrum for restoration and rehabilitation of institutions for functional effectiveness and efficiency.
In this wise, anyone, civil servants or otherwise, that must make a mark, is expected to make it through the rigour and danger and the tantalising possibilities of success that reform promises.
This was contained in an acceptance speech delivered by Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Tunji Olaopa an awardee of the 2012 Kwame Nkrumah Africa Distinguished Public Service Order of Merit organised by the International Centre for Peace and Charity, held in Accra, Ghana Saturday.
While saying the award would ginger him more in discharging his duties, Olaopa equally noted that, “anyone who sees in his own occupation merely a means of earning money degrades it; but he that sees in it a service to mankind ennobles both his labor and himsel.
‘’It was said of Augustus that he found Rome brick and he left it marble. Let my own honour also be that I found the civil service this way and I contributed my quota in turning it another way, for the better.
‘’For me, a life of service is its own honour. And that honour is what I will wear as a badge of my patriotism to a fatherland that gave me the opportunity to be relevant, that allowed my administrative expertise to flower and be put to use at the topmost level of my calling.
‘’Indeed, I had no hand in choosing Nigeria as my nationality; yet, there is no other country I would rather have served with my expertise. Joining in the fray of nurturing Nigeria to greatness, for me, is the best vocation a public servant can ever hope for.’’
He said Nigeria constitutes a significant piece in the African renaissance framework., adding that the pan-African spirit that Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah pushed his whole life is still evolving through NEPAD, APRM, as well as the collective desires in the hearts of all to take Africa to the height of governance.