Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, has stressed the need for the nation’s public service to be more innovative and technology driven owing to its significant role in national development.
Speaking today through his deputy, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, at the opening of the 42nd meeting of the National Council on Establishment in Ikeja, the governor emphasised that “in the 21st Century where technology and innovation are the main drivers of development, our public service must not live in the past; it must reflect the new age and strive to be competitive as a foremost public service in the sub-region and Africa.”
While stressing that the public service, no doubt occupied strategic position in governance as a result of the responsibilities entrusted in their care, Sanwo-Olu noted that no government could succeed in actualising its vision and plan for the people without an effective, efficient and innovative public service charged with its responsibility of implementing government policies and programmes.
He disclosed that his administration accorded conditions of service and staff welfare a pride of place in the state and was committed to ensuring that its serving and retired public servants were deservedly compensated and appreciated for their meritorious services.
The governor remarked that the state government was resolute in its conviction to bequeath a greater Lagos to both present and future generation.
Earlier in her address, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, stated that in line with its role as the engine room for national development, a modern Nigerians civil service must remain strategically positioned to develop and drive reforms that would have transformational impact on all sectors of the nation’s economy.
She emphasised that as service providers, civil servants must brace up to meeting the challenges of service delivery and other dividends of democracy to the rising population of the country.
Yemi-Esan added that arising from the challenge, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration was putting in place, a number of mechanisms to drive its flagship digitalisation project.
According to her, that included the implementation of a service-wide Enterprise Content Management Solution, ECMS, which is aimed at digitising records and automating workflow to achieve overall improvement in information sharing and collaboration across the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government.
In addition, she disclosed that her office was already finalising the development of Standard Operating Procedures, SOPs, for all processes ahead of the service-wide roll out for the Enterprise Content Management Solution, ECMs.
In his remarks, Lagos State Head of Service, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola, noted that meeting would avail the council the opportunity of midwifing the required improvement in the civil service delivery.
He stated that “It is clearly evident that yesterday’s skills have proved inadequate in addressing today’s issues. There is therefore no gainsaying that today’s knowledge and skills may not be sufficient in confronting tomorrow’s challenges”.
He also noted that the world had become more dynamic than ever before, the pace of change was unbelievably fast and it was manifestly clear that the work would be significantly determined by emerging technologies.
He stated the meeting presented a unique opportunity to interrogate and review the structure, processes and procedure in a way “that will enable the council engineer a more responsive public service structure in which all public officers would be imbued with the core values of discipline, ethics and the highest standards of professionalism by default.
