The Federal government has urged members of the civil service on the need to ensure quality service delivery as they serve the national course.
Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation made this call during the graduation ceremony of the Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme (LEAD-P) batch-1 participants in Abuja.
According to him, promoting leadership development for effective succession planning has over time, remained the bane of the Civil Service.
“This underscores the need to equip officers appropriately with such laudable programmes, in view of the fact that the public service of any nation, in all its bureaucratic complexity, has aptly been described as the engine of government.
“Public service leadership has never been so challenging or complex. Public servants have to make space for innovation while managing risks and being accountable for results,” he said.
The event marked the climax of classroom and practical field trainings that the participants, representing middle level officers on SGL 1O- 14, were exposed to since the commencement of the programme in September, 2021.
A total of 118 participants from different ministries, departments and agencies of government successfully bowed out of the program.
According to Mustapha, the LEAD-P is one of the three core training programmes contained in the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (2021-2025), as approved by the Federal Executive Council, with the other two being the Service-wide Structured Mandatory Assessment-Based Training Programme (SMAT-P) and Induction Training Programme.
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“The program provided the opportunity to develop the skills needed to become future leaders. It has also provided participants with requisite sets of skills required to perform effectively in the 21st century Public Service, where governance is measured by the quality of its service delivery.
” This demonstrates the fact that public servants must have the capacity to support fast-moving political agendas, manage and transform vast public organisations, motivate and inspire their workforce and be trusted partners to citizens and an ever-growing list of Development Partners and Stakeholders. The experiences of other nations certainly show that an efficient and professional bureaucracy is an essential ingredient for national wellbeing and sustainable development,” he said.
In her remark, the head of Civil Service of the Federation, Folasade Yemi-Esan said that the program will not fail in providing the Public Service with huge wealth of human resource that can be deployed for any strategic assignment.
According to her, efforts were ongoing to ensure sustainability of the program as well as promote effective impact to turn around the Civil Service.
“We must maintain the tempo and support the zeal of these officers by ensuring that they are fully engaged in critical assignments.
We must not shy away from rewarding performance and providing appropriate role-modeling and mentorship. As future leaders, we must recognise the importance of continuous self development, adherence to appropriate codes of ethics and values in our individual work places,” she said.
