The Vice-President, Kashim Shettima, has said the civil service must walk away from its reputation of redundancy and inefficiency.
Shettima, who also stressed the need to reposition the civil service, decried the changes in leadership dynamics across the board.
According to a statement on Sunday by the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Shettima who spoke at the second graduation and award presentation ceremony of some civil servants who underwent training organised by the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation said that the Leadership Enhancement and Development Program initiative would help address longstanding challenges facing the Nigerian civil service.
He said, “This marks a further turning point in the fortunes of the public service and the civil service in Nigeria and the astute work that has been done that continues to be done in requisitioning the service. I assure you that it’s a new dawn.
“A leader is that visionary and calculated risk taker who takes his people to where they need to be, even if they don’t know that they need to be there.
“So, the challenges of leadership are changing, becoming more complex and systems of complexity. So, with the rigorous training on leadership that our graduates have gone through over months or perhaps years of preparation, it is my belief that we are unleashing on our public service and our civil service a ready cohort of game changers and change ambassadors.
“The idea behind training a select few is for them to infect the vast majority in a good way with what they have learned and to replicate themselves everywhere. The task will not be easy. The world is watching, and your job is cut out for you.
“There is a critical need to reposition public service or civil service and to get us to begin to attain the levels which we have seen in many countries around the world. We have to walk away from a reputation of redundancy and inefficiency.”
On his part, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume represented by the permanent secretary, General Services Office, OSGF, Dr. Nnamdi Mbaeri, while emphasizing the critical role played by Civil Servants in nation-building, said: “The LEAD-P program, a vital pillar of the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021-2025, is a testament to unwavering commitment towards excellence in governance.
“To the 107 graduates, your journey through this program has been one of intellectual rigor and personal transformation. You have been challenged, stretched, and molded into the leaders our nation needs. Therefore, I charge you to deploy your intellect with conviction, your skills with purpose, and your leadership with integrity.”
Also speaking, the head of service of the federation, Folasade Yemi-Esan, while stressing the need for human capital for nation-building, noted that: “Investing in human knowledge and skills is an urgent necessity for development. This is because people are the main engine for growth and without skills or knowledge and personnel, it’s not possible to achieve the growth, development, and advance rates that nations aspire to.”
She said that the choice of focusing on officers on salary grade level 10 to 14, was informed by the need to lay a very strong foundation for the future of the civil service.
She also noted that “one of the cardinal objectives of the leadership enhancement development program is also to change the mindset of officers and increase the self-awareness and patterns of behavior so that they can also, in turn, influence the mindset of other officers, making them more capable of leading.”
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