President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has urged the
Civil Service to play a leading role in the implementation of the
Transformation Agenda.
President Jonathan, who was represented by the Vice President, Arc. Mohammed
Namadi Sambo, at the 60th Anniversary celebration of the Nigerian
Public Service Commission in Abuja Tuesday, said he expected “the Civil Service
to play a leading role in the implementation of our Transformation
Agenda. It must bring about qualitative education, implementation of a
comprehensive and affordable health care programme, and timely generation and
distribution of electricity and renewable energy, for industrial and household
consumption.”
Jonathan commended the theme for the commemoration – “Civil Service Core
Values: the Sine-qua-non for National Development” as very appropriate and said
he was not asking too much if he expected public officials to provide greater
efficiency and wider access to the services craved for by every Nigerian,
noting that this will lead in the provision of water for domestic, agriculture
and industrial consumption, gainful employment options, for teaming youth
population, among others.
He stressed that the Administration has embarked on a number of key institutional
reform initiatives in order to realize the vision of a professional, highly
skilled, merit-driven and integrity-based institution that can effectively
contribute to national development.
Mr. President highlighted that these reforms included “the rationalization of
the Public Service, sectorial reforms in the oil and gas sectors, and the
establishment of a new economic and financial management framework,
presented by the National Economic management Team.”
As the watchdog of the Civil Service, Jonathan said, the work of the Federal
Civil Service is vital to the rapid realization of the development
objectives of government, and, must ensure respect for rule of law; transparency
and accountability; effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery;
elimination of waste in governance and respect for constituted authority, as
guiding principles for the conduct of Government business by all civil
servants.
He however, commended the Commission for its on-going reform programmes, which
he said will impact positively on the work, ethics and performance of all in
the service and cautioned that much still needs to be done given the challenges
and Civil Service should go beyond its traditional roles and become active
agent of change.
Earlier, the Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, Dns Joan O. Ayo, said
there are One hundred and twenty thousand (120,000) civil servants in the
country and emphasized that the Service should be based on meritocracy.
She further said the celebration was to appreciate and show-case the
founding fathers of the service and others like Chief Philip Asiodu and many
others who made the Service what it is today.
Delivering his Public Service Lecture, Dr. Constantinos BT Constantinos, a
professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies, College of Business and
Economics, AAU, represented by Prof. Richard Levin, Secretary, African
Association of Public Service, said the Nigerian State inherited a colonial and
military public service system characterized by weakness in the administrative
and working systems.
He noted that “the image Nigeria and Nigerians have developed in the global
media is that it is a ‘failed state’ that lacks effectiveness, efficiency and
ethical behavior in performance and service delivery and unpredictable resource
flows had undermined the allocative and operational efficiency of the public
sector at the federal, regional and local levels.
Constantinos pointed out that efficient public sector provides the foundation
and engine for development. He spoke about the reforms in the country’s Civil
Service; the progress in the policies and political leadership; institutional motivation
and suggested capacity building scenarios, such as federal and state level
capacity building, Civil Service reform programme, district level
decentralization, justice service reform, remuneration and career incentive and
many others.
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