Charles Olatunde Lawson, CON, was a Nigerian civil servant who served as Secretary to the Federal Military Government and Head of Service from 1972 to 1975. The military regime of Yakubu Gowon appointed him Secretary to the Federal Military Government in August 1972, replacing Abdul Aziz Atta.
Early life and education Lawson was educated at Wesley College, Ibadan, and he began work as a schoolteacher. He later studied at the University of Oxford, where he earned a Master of Arts degree.
Civil service career Lawson joined the Nigerian administrative service in 1947, and after three years in junior administrative posts he joined the government's Statistics Department in 1950.
By the 1960s, Lawson was working at the centre of the federal administration. In 1966, Lawson was posted to the Council of Ministers, Cabinet Secretariat, Lagos.
He later rose to the position of Federal Permanent Secretary. He served as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Communications before he was appointed Secretary to the Federal Military Government in 1972. Contemporary reporting described him as the most senior administrative civil servant working in the Lagos ministries.
Secretary to the Federal Military Government Lawson succeeded fellow Permanent Secretary Abdul Aziz Atta, who died in 1972, and his tenure began on 16 August 1972 and ended on 31 March 1975.
Lawson concurrently held the post of Head of Service.
During the military era, senior civil servants bore significant responsibility for formulating and implementing government policy. Lawson argued n that the role of a civil servant was fundamentally similar under civilian and military governments and that civil servants were expected to participate in both the formulation and execution of policy.
Former federal permanent secretary Philip Asiodu later described him as one of a group of older permanent secretaries who initially took a more traditional view of the limits of permanent secretaries' policy-making role during the Gowon administration.
Lawson left office on 31 March 1975. Allison Ayida then took up office as Secretary to the Federal Military Government on 23 April 1975.
Honours Lawson was appointed a Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) in 1979. The official national honours list described him as the retired Secretary to the Federal Military Government and Head of Service.
See also Secretary to the Government of the Federation Nigerian Civil Service
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