The Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has urged support for development and policy institutes in the country to break the government’s dependence on foreign policy bodies.

Olaopa spoke in Abuja yesterday during a visit by a delegation of the Chartered Institute of Development Studies and Administration of Nigeria (CIDSA), led by the president, Dr Elijah Ogbuokiri.

He decried the trend whereby, in most cases, the most frequently cited statistics on development issues in Nigeria come from foreign institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Olaopa described CIDSAN as a relevant multidisciplinary body concerned with policy and administration, stating that the institute is well-positioned to plug the policy institutes’ significant lacuna in the quality of support and problem-solving for the federal bureaucracy.

He disclosed that he established the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) to fill this vacuum before he left for the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS).

According to Olaopa, his experience at NIPSS confirmed that most institutions that contribute to policy-making face the same challenges of capacity and funding.

Therefore, those in government who are involved in policy-making owe the nation and government the responsibility of building national policy and development institutions through patronage.

He stressed that the reliance on foreign policy bodies is seen in the adoption of best practices developed in socioeconomic contexts that are different from those of Nigeria. He noted that, while some institutions still make impact in technical support in the private sector, their theories of change are not largely applicable in the public sector.

Earlier, Ogbuokiri disclosed that the visit was intended to forge a collaboration with the character commission, urging civil servants to join the institute and be trained as experts in different areas of development and policy.