Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
President Bola Tinubu and Governors of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara as well as Duoye Diri of Bayelsa State, are among the dignitaries expected to attend the presentation of two books by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Didi Esther Walson-Jack.
The books, ‘I Planted: A Memoir of Purposeful Service’ and ‘Beyond the Mandate: A Memoir on Leadership, Legacy, & Labour of Public Service’, which detail Walson-Jack’s experiences as a state and federal public servant, are to be presented in Abuja on August 25.
Also expected at the event are the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Tajudeen Abbas; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume; the Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Dr Zacchaeus Adedeji, permanent secretaries, service chiefs and members of the diplomatic corps.
The two books, coming after her first, ‘Roses in the Thorns: An Autobiography,’ keep alive a sterling family literary legacy established by her father, Christian Atani Okpofaa Otobotekere (the Okun XIX and Amananaowei of Tombia), the late poet-King of Tombia, Bayelsa State, who wrote 14 books before his death in 2023.
The books will be officially reviewed by former Director-General of the Bureau for Public Service Reforms, Dr Joe Abah.
A statement said the books have already garnered several positive reviews from prominent public policy analysts and business leaders, including the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Prof Tunji Olaopa, and Chairman Access Bank Holdings, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.
“Mrs Didi Esther Walson-Jack’s memoir, ‘I Planted: A Memoir of Purposeful Service,’ navigates the tensions of being a pioneer civil servant in a fledgling state and the treacherous politics of the workplace, all while maintaining her resolve to preserve her integrity at all costs,” Olaopa said.
He added that the publication, essential reading for present and future career civil servants and other development workers , commemorated the laying of the foundation on which the superstructure of whatever she later became solidified, as her career progressed to the federal level.
Walson-Jack, who began her public service career in the Rivers State Civil Service in 1992 and rose to Permanent Secretary in 2017, serving across six ministries, was appointed to the position of Head of the Civil Service of the Federation by Tinubu in August 2024.