Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Thursday emphasised the need for the nation’s public service to be more innovative and technologically driven for national development.
Sanwo-Olu made the call in his in his welcome address at the 42nd Meeting of the National Council on Establishment in Ikeja.
The governor, who was represented by his Deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, said the public service must operate according to the dictates and evolving technological nature of the 21st century to ensure global competitiveness.
Sanwo-Olu stated that Nigeria’s public service must strive to reflect the new age and be competitive as a foremost public service in the sub-region and Africa at large.
He noted that no government could succeed in actualising its visions and plans for the people without an effective, efficient and innovative public service, charged with the responsibility of implementing government policies and programmes.
The governor disclosed that his administration accorded a pride of pride to the condition of service and staff welfare of workers in Lagos State.
He reiterated his administration’s commitment to ensuring that its serving and retired public servants were deservedly compensated and appreciated for their meritorious services.
“The public service, no doubt, occupies strategic position in governance as a result of the responsibilities entrusted in their care.
“They must therefore strive to be better innovative, more adept to technology as they discharge their duties.
“The Lagos State Government is resolute in its conviction to bequeath a greater Lagos to both present and future generations,” he said.
In her remarks, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, stated that a modern Nigerian civil service must remain strategically positioned to develop and drive reforms that would have transformational impact on all sectors of the nation’s economy.
This, she said, was in line with its role as the engine room for national development.
Yemi-Esan emphasized that as service providers, civil servants must brace up to meet the challenges of service delivery and other dividends of democracy to the rising population of the country.
Yemi-Esan added that the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration was putting in place a number of mechanisms to drive its flagship digitalisation project.
“These mechanism include, the implementation of a service-wide Enterprise Content Management Solution (ECMS).
“The aim is at digitising records and automating workflow to achieve overall improvement in information sharing and collaboration across the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government.
“My office is currently 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),” she said.
The Lagos State Head of Service, Mr Hakeem Muri-Okunola, noted that the meeting would avail the council the opportunity of midwifing the required improvement in civil service delivery.
“The meeting presents 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.
“This way, all public officers will be imbued with the core values of discipline, ethics and the highest standards of professionalism by default.
“The world is more dynamic than ever before, the pace of change is unbelievably fast and it is manifestly clear that the work will be significantly determined by emerging technologies,” he said. (NAN)
