The vision of rebuilding Nigeria and placing it on the path of prosperity is possible if the nation can attract its best brains and best hands into the civil and public service, Edo State governor, Governor Godwin, says.
The governor said this during a strategy retreat of the Heads of Service (HOS) of Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo and Delta States under the aegis of the BRACED Commission, held at the John Odigie Oyegun Public Service Academy, (JOOPSA) in Benin City, Edo State, on Wednesday.
The retreat is targeted at fostering excellence in the public and private sectors and equipping participants from the six states in the south-south zone with the requisite skills to develop an action plan for the betterment of the region.
Obaseki, who is the chairman of the BRACED Commission, while declaring the two-day strategy retreat open, said the retreat would recreate the trajectory of an efficient and effective public service in the region.
According to him, the retreat brings to the fore the question of how to rebuild the country through institutions and bureaucracy at the local, state and federal levels, a process he said can be achievable by ensuring that the best hands come from the civil service.
“In my final year at the University of Ibadan, the federal civil service and civil service from other states came to the institution to hire the best. This was why the public and civil service worked because it had very good quality people.
“If we must have a public and civil service that works and are going to rebuild Nigeria, the best must be attracted to come back to work in the public and civil service. There is no shortcut to it and for the best to come and work for you, you must treat them well, pay them as much as they will get outside if they work for other companies or institutions.”
The governor noted that capacity building for the State is important and the way people are hired and retained is key for his administration.
He further stated, “If you want the service and the bureaucracy to work, you must treat the people well, respect them, tell them what to do and if they don’t know, teach them what to do.
“As a government, we have our roadmap and decided on how to go about achieving those things we planned to achieve and we did it in six ways, which are our thematic pillars.
“We came in when things were really bad, institutions had collapsed and we met a lot of riot in the system but we never complained but faced the challenge of fixing what we met rather than complaining.”
Obaseki added, “We promised automated processes and workflow, to motivate our civil service for high performance, to rebuild the capacity of public servants through training, to revamp the work environment of public servants. These we have achieved.”
Tunji Olaopa, a professor, and chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, who spoke on “strategic leadership in civil and public service: challenges, opportunities and future prospects,” said the challenge of rebuilding Nigeria required an engine which is the civil and public service, adding that the engine is weak and needs re-energising to move the nation forward.
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