The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Public service

  • Public service and centrality of the citizenry

    In view of its position in terms of formulating and executing government policies, there is now an urgent need for the public service at all levels to embrace a change of perspective in its operational mode.  Having the right perspective is of utmost importance in any endeavour or organisation. Hayley Hobson once wrote a piece titled, “A New Perspective Can Change Everything” in which she stated that power is within and not outside of us. She opines that if you want to change the results you get, you need to go within and start working on your thoughts and perspectives. Your thoughts and perspectives create your feelings. Your feelings determine the way you act while the way you act defines your results.

    In this regards, the public service needs to start charting a path to the adoption of a citizenry-centric, customer-focused, or customer-driven perspective in all its activities. A customer-centered organization is one that considers the customer in everything it does, from procurement to deployment and to the entire customer experience. It also speaks to its customers in their own language and makes it easy for them to align their goals with the mission at hand.

    Many government agency executives have important messages to deliver, and the success of their communications is crucial to the agency’s success. Senior executives need to deliver effective mass communications to the agency employees, concerned citizens, and other stakeholders while maintaining impeccable standards that live up to the ever- increasing scrutiny of today’s communications environment. There are empirical methods that drive successful communications which agencies can seek out now.

    In making a case for a customer-centered public service, Christopher Brown noted that, countless studies have documented the link between organizational culture and organizational performance. Specifically, many studies show that a customer-centric culture drives superior service and value for customers resulting in an experience that creates customer satisfaction and advocacy. This, in turn, drives exceptional organizational performance in terms of productivity, new product/service success, innovation and financial performance.

    In the public service, all MDAs have clearly defined missions to provide services to their constituents. Each reports to a government official who is part of a central, state or local government that represents a community – much of which is made up of customers that experience the service. Poor experience leads to complaints that in turn, ultimately affect public perception if service is consistently bad.

    Ideally, the public service must understand its customers’ changing needs and really care about the needs of the public. Inability to do this might create undue stress for both employees and customers and takes resources away from their core roles. The momentum and complexity of global change are challenging all organizations, including government agencies, to move faster, work smarter, use their resources more effectively and think further ahead.

    Indeed, more than ever before, governments at all levels have an opportunity to dramatically change the nature of their interactions with citizens. The emergence of new tools, technologies and methods offers a unique chance to secure the bond between the public and those who serve them. As noted by Pedro Nava and David Bieir, “there is growing recognition that government can offer services attuned not to an alphabet soup of government bureaucracy but to the realities of life, with pathways for engagement around events such as the birth of a child or registering a new car. Equally, the massive data collected by government can be made available openly to allow the private sector create useful new products and applications, as it already has done with GPS technology.

    Today, businesses across the world understand that customers want to access their services at any time, from any device and location. Connected citizens have the tools and the confidence to control how and when they engage services. What is more, these new forms of engagement are not just helping brands to deliver an even greater customer-centric service; they are unlocking new revenue streams in the private sector.

    It is in order to inculcate this new perspective of public engagement into the Lagos State public service that the State Government is demanding from its workforce a new attitude and orientation. It is the view of government that the public sector has what it takes to easily emulate the private sector’s use of technology in order to meet the ever-increasing citizen expectations and boost commercial viability.

    Consequently, the public sector needs to build a customer-first culture with customers as the primary focus of interactions. This can be achieved by meaningfully consulting with citizens about their needs and experiences. Also, efforts should be made to organize government to make its interactions simpler and easier by experimenting with new digital and other techniques and service-delivery tools.

    Equally, the public sector should be prepared to work proactively with current government employees while recruiting new workers who understand why customer-centric government is essential. Digital-savvy younger graduates are a rich source for this new workforce. Gladly, the Lagos State public service is currently not doing badly in this direction.

    Finally, it is important to regularly measure citizen satisfaction. Identifying which services citizens find most problematic and measuring the extent of that dissatisfaction is one way governments can prioritize areas for improvement. Thus, it is essential to let the citizens decides what matters most, but avoid asking them directly. It is also crucial to identify natural break points in customer satisfaction. Striving for zero wait times and a one-click transaction across the entirety of government services is likely to prove both unrealistic and costly.

    Public servants can strike a balance between delivering high-quality, responsive services and managing resources effectively by using citizen-satisfaction metrics to determine acceptable service levels. One way of doing that is by identifying break points, the point at which delays or service shortfalls cause customer satisfaction to drop significantly. Also, public feedback must be combined with internal data to uncover hidden pain points. Combining customer-satisfaction information with operational data—call-center volumes and number of in-person visits can yield additional insights, beyond what citizens state explicitly via surveys and other feedback channels.

    It is, therefore, in view of the truism that we are in an emerging golden age of citizen engagement that the Lagos State Government has been providing its workforce with relevant trainings that could make them fit into the emerging pattern in public engagement. Consequently, they are now better equipped to effectively discharge their roles as leaders in the different MDAs of the state’s public service.

    The result is that the citizens are now steadily being regarded as kings and as such are being accorded the utmost honor and respect. Thus, by and by, we are marching towards the realization of the state government’s vision for a Lagos State that can compete with the most admired global cities. This, indeed, is the real essence of the public service.

     

    • Oke, is Lagos State Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Lagos State

     

  • Public service and inspirational leadership

    Universally, public service is the institution that drives activities of government.  It operates with professionals and non- professionals from whom it demands a special aptitude, training, language, discipline and culture. It is the major instrument used by government to implement its policies, programmes and plans. No wonder many refer to it as the engine room of governance! Hence, for any government to do well, it must be backed by a virile and visionary public service.

    In envisioning a public service peopled by leaders, we are mindful, as Robin Sharma observed that: “Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It is about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire team-mates and customers.”

    The Lagos State government under the leadership of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode fully recognizes the enormous value that knowledge and soft skills training bring to bear on the attainment of the strategic objectives of the government and the state’s public service. This is why it has always been in the vanguard of advocating for the institutionalization of essential training programmes that benefit the most strategically-placed officers in the public service.

    Indeed, it is a truism that high performances have been known to increase in organizations that expose their human capital to leadership development through training programmes that help boost the dynamism, effectiveness and efficiency of the workforce.

    The need for ensuring and assuring the efficiency and effectiveness of public institutions has never been greater than now. In a dynamic age of constant changes, it is widely agreed that institutions must have clearly-defined missions that are relevant to the needs and aspirations of its stakeholders. Following this, the human capital at the helm of leadership in these institutions must have the courage to envision a future that realizes the attainment of the defined mission of the institutions. In order to actualize the vision, however, leaders must be trained to possess both the hard and soft skills that are fundamental for success.

    The Anglia Ruskin University clearly articulates the benefits of strong leadership skills as follows: “In order to make the most of your proficiency in the workplace, it is important to develop your leadership skills. Whilst talent and a good work ethic will take you to a certain level, learning how to lead will get you to the top of the tree. If you can demonstrate that you know how to lead, you will often be rewarded with a position that carries more responsibility, the ability to delegate and, of course, a good salary. Those who can lead know how to make important decisions that affect both themselves and people across the business, without deferring to anyone else. This is an absolute necessity for getting ahead within business – as long as you can prove the decisions you made were the right ones…”

    That observation is profoundly true as it relates to the benefits of leadership skills for the leader. I also wish to briefly comment on how the possession of the right skills will positively impact on the effectiveness of institutions.

    Leadership is the most influential and critical element of all businesses. Effective leaders have the necessary tools and skills to inspire and impact their teams allowing firms to run competently and smoothly. A good leader must understand the mission statements, objectives, action plans and goals of the organisation to be able to lead the workforce into realizing them.

    Indeed, only strong and trained leaders can envision the right and appropriate future for organisations. Where leaders do not possess the attitude, aptitude and skills that are relevant for the times, they become fundamentally flawed in any attempt to craft a beneficial and compelling vision for their organizations. And, as we all know, in the absence of vision, the people perish as the institutions become rudderless and their journey becomes one without a map.

    Trained, visionary and, therefore, strong leaders will also beneficially impact their organisations by being able to inspire the people in the organization to enthusiastically buy into the vision crafted by the leadership. There is no effective leadership without a mobilized and enthused followership. A strong leader who resolutely believes in the vision of the organisation will magnetically attract followers who will join the movement to fulfil the mission and realize the vision. This calls for the presence of excellent communications and relational skills in the leaders of organisations.

    In today’s world, a strategic leader must be able to act as a communication champion and a sense giver rather than just as an information processor. He must be able to use key elements of effective listening and understand why listening is important to communication. He must also be able to utilize candour to appropriately improve communication effectiveness, and recognize and apply the difference between dialogue and discussion. Additionally, he must be equipped to incorporate metaphor and storytelling into leadership communications, select an appropriate communication channel for the message and effectively use social media and non-verbal communication. Furthermore, and perhaps, most essentially, he/she must be able to effectively communicate during times of stress or crisis.

    Trained leaders also know how to manage their own and other people’s time effectively. Being able to do so is critical when it comes to making the most of the leader’s time in the office and not becoming overwhelmed. Furthermore, it also ensures that the trained leader’s team completes everything it is supposed to do.

    Furthermore, benefits that leadership skills can bring include the ability to resolve conflict, the ability to negotiate effectively for the benefit of the organisation, the aptitude to innovate and the skill to communicate quickly and effectively.

    It is in view of the foregoing that the Lagos State Civil Service has always been in the forefront of innovation and dynamic effectiveness in the nation and the Ambode administration is dedicated to the maintenance of this noble position in the country. It is for this reason, among others, that diverse trainings have been approved and organized for the benefits of the critical and invaluable human resources in charge of the institution of the public service. The overall goal is to build a crop of public officials who could efficiently assist the government in proffering possible solutions to complicated problems.

    At present, the state government’s focus on training and re-training of its workforce is steadily yielding results. Consequently, the vision of achieving a Lagos State that is managed by a dynamic and competent public service is progressively being attained. This is what makes Lagos a model to others and this is a convention that the Ambode led government hopes to preserve and exceed.

     

    • Dr. Oke is Lagos State Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions.
  • Stop corruption in public service, Lalong urges committees

    Stop corruption in public service, Lalong urges committees

    Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong has charged the Plateau State House of Assembly Service Commission (PSHASC) and Teachers Service Commission (PSTSC)  to support his administration’s anti-corruption drive.

    Lalong urged both commissions to comply with due process in order to reduce the cost of governance and block public corruption.

    He advised them to acquaint themselves with the philosophy of government and its policy directions as stated in the five policy thrust of his ‘Rescue Administration.’

    Lalong spoke in Jos while inaugurating both committees.

    He said: “You are appointees from your various ethnic groups but not for your ethnic group alone.

    “In the words of Mr President, “you belong to everybody and you belong to nobody”.

    “As you therefore perform the duty of your office, be guided by the core virtues of humility, diligence, mutual respect, bipartisanship, accommodation and the fear of God.

    “You will ensure you exercise due diligence and comply with due process in order to reduce the cost of governance and block public corruption in the business of government.

    “As you do this, you will be joining the league of anti-corruption campaigners on the Plateau and Nigeria in general.

    PSHASC comprises Banahel Joseph Andong as Chairman and members including Yahaya Kanam, Yusha’u Mohammed Mazadu, Joseph Ditep Kwatmak, Dinah Nanji Lar, Da’a Ernest Abner and Mr Stephen D. Gwong.

    Members of the Plateau State Teachers Service Commission are: Vongjen T. Lar – Chairman, Hannatu Samuel Giwa – Permanent Member I, Mr Simon J. Wakkai – Permanent Member II among others.

    Lalong said: “The House of Assembly Service Commission has a rich composition of former Legislators, who have a good understanding of what is required administratively and legislatively through peer review of global best practices, for the legislature to function.

    “The Teachers Service Commission is not left out in the qualitative all-inclusive selection criteria. This is the reason why government could not afford not to look for the relevant experience of seasoned bureaucrats and administrators, who understand what qualitative recruitment, man power development and innovative institutional management, have the potential of doing, in the basic education sub-sector of the state.

  • Lagos committed to building world class public service, says Ambode

    Lagos committed to building world class public service, says Ambode

    The Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has expressed his determination to build a public service peopled by workers willing to deploy their leadership potentials in the greater good of the state.

    He said this is the only way the state workforce can continue to retain its leadership position in the country.

    He urged public workers to be willing to initiate actions, maximise efficiency of time and resources, provide guidance and instill confidence in the citizens, concerning the policies and programmes of the government.

    Ambode made this known while drawing the curtain on a five-day training for the newly employed officers of the state at the Public Service Staff Development Centre, Magodo, Lagos.

    The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr Akintola Benson Oke, said to achieve this, he would continue to increase access of all categories of officers to training and retraining in order to ensure that adequate capacity needed to drive the smart city ideals to push the state forward are imbibed by all.

    Oke, in a speech titled: Preparing for a career in the Lagos State public service, delivered by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary Mr Senayon Hundeyin, the governor expressed  hope that the training had exposed the workers to essential problem solving skills needed to excel in the public service.

    “By this training, we hope you have been exposed to how you can develop the mind set needed to deploying these skills as this is mandatory for your success in a rapidly changing world as this is in our quest to build a public service of our dreams.”

    In his remarks, PSSDC’s Acting Director-General, Mr. Olufunmi Ajose-Harrison, said the induction, which was the third in the series, was organised for 220 workers that cut across all Ministries, Department and Agencies of the state.

    The course, according to him, was primarily designed to re-orientate the new entrants into the state public service about laid down procedures and familiarise them with the work environment.

    He said the training has exposed the new officers to the vision and strategies of the government, the rules and regulations guiding their conduct in public service, delineate public finance techniques and the management of government resources and the development of requisite skills to improve their career in the public service.

  • Lagos public service remains most progressive in Nigeria – Ambode

    Lagos public service remains most progressive in Nigeria – Ambode

    …Urges retired HOS, Perm Secs to continue adding value to governance

     

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Tuesday described the State Public Service as the most progressive in Nigeria, just as he urged retired Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries to continue to add value to governance and contribute to uphold the excellence which the State is known for.

    Speaking at the opening session of the summit of Association of Lagos State Retired Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries (ALARHOSPS) held at Adeyemi Bero Auditorium in Alausa, Governor Ambode said over the years, members of the association had contributed immensely to the growth of the State, and that it was important for them to continue to offer their wealth of knowledge for the benefit of the State.

    The Governor, who recalled the quality of recommendations that have originated from past summits of the association after their inauguration in 2015, said the ideas and suggestions have been found to be very useful in his administration’s policy articulation, design and implementation.

    Governor Ambode said being a product of the public service as a retired Permanent Secretary in the State, he was looking forward with confidence to a robust and inspiring communique at the end of the summit that would be beneficial to the future development of the State.

    The summit, which is the third in the series, was organised as part of activities marking the Lagos at 50 celebration, and it is with the theme: “Lagos At Fifty, Five Decades Of Excellence.”

    The Governor recalled that since inception, the State has evolved to become the most prosperous State in Nigeria with a GDP more than that of several African countries put together, saying that there was no way the growth and success story of the State could be documented without mentioning the immense contribution of the state’s public service.

    Governor Ambode, who described the civil service as the engine room of government, said while most civil servants are shielded from the public eye, they work tirelessly to formulate and implement policies which drive the government.

    “l know this because I am one of you – a retired Permanent Secretary. Indeed, the Lagos State Public Service that emerged in 1967 under the leadership of Mr. H.E. Howson-Wright, the first Lagos State Head of Service, laid the foundation for a vibrant and purposeful bureaucracy which assisted the first Military Government led by Brigadier Mobolaji Johnson to put the State on a right and solid footing.

    “Today, the Lagos State Public Service has the reputation as the most progressive Public Service in Nigeria. This could not have been made possible without the solid foundation built by successive Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries, represented by the distinguished personalities seated here today.

    “The vision of Excellence given birth to then has remained the same and continued to be the guiding light for generations. This shared vision, which is articulated in well thought-out policies and implemented with passion, patriotic zeal and sense of commitment is the Lagos we are celebrating today,” the Governor said.

    Speaking on the theme, Governor Ambode said the celebration of Lagos at 50 was about showcasing the past achievements and present successes, as well as building the Lagos of the future on the foundation laid by the hardworking and selfless-serving public servants, and thus commended ALARHOSPS members for dedicating the summit to celebrate the golden jubilee of Lagos.

    Earlier in his welcome address, ALARHOSPS President, Alhaji Kayode Anjorin said the programme  marking Lagos at 50 was about celebrating the creativity, challenges and achievements of the founding fathers, players and the men and women (dead and alive), whose invaluable contributions have made Lagos the centre of excellence.

     

     

     

  • Reforming the public service

    The public service of any country as a sub-governmental machinery is not only part and parcel of the springboard for public policy formulation, but also the body through which public policies and services are dispensed.  A labyrinthine entity which embraces the core civil service and other public-oriented service dispensing agencies, it is the instrumentality by which the campaign promises of the members of the political class are translated into concrete realities.  It is the wheel that drives governance; its quality partly determines the quality of the government of the day; and its performance speed partly signifies the efficiency and effectiveness of the government in power.  It is of course and generally speaking, the warp and woof of good governance.  It is so vital in the life of every government that no government can dare treat it as dispensable.  As tough as  Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was while in government, he did underscore the importance of the public service to governance.  His words: “there can be no effective government without the … service which is the machinery for ensuring the implementation of government policies and safeguarding public welfare.’’

    At different junctures of Nigeria’s political history, it has been discovered that the Nigerian public service has been bedevilled by a number of pathologies which have been encumbering its performance.  For long, the Nigerian public service has been generally inefficient and ineffective;  its ethical orientation has been obviously warped;  its methods and procedures have, at one time or the other, been found anachronistic and the corruption that pervades its rank and file has been adjudged freak.  Indeed, it was on account of these and many more that the service has been subjected to reforms and purges almost with rhythmical regularity.  Reminiscent of these were the over a dozen reforms and purges which began in 1934 with the Hunt Commission and of which the notable and recent ones are, the Udoji Reform of 1974; the great Murtala Mohammed purge of 1976; the Babangida Reforms of 1988; the Abacha purge of 1995; the death-aborted reform of Yar’Adua and the feeble and inconclusive attempt at reforms by Goodluck Jonathan.  While some of these reforms and purges have certainly changed the face of the Nigerian public service, it is still worrisome to note that, even up till today, the Nigerian public service still remains unwieldy, grossly inefficient, barely effective and incurably corrupt and thereby suggestive of the existence of a very serious reform gap.

    In reforming the public service, scholars and practictioners have come up with different templates.  According to Ahanonum, a reform aimed at turning around the service for better performance must address the following aspects:  in-depth restructuring of personnel; introduction of reward system that has nothing to do with the personal profile of the worker but with well-targeted achievement; elimination of unproductive procedures and bottle-necks; fragmentation of the accounting hierarchy with a view to narrowing down the volume of public funds handled by one authority or individual civil servants; tying responsibility squarely around the individual performer rather than the system of various responsibility which has held sway; giving the worker more sense of belonging to the political and social community; retooling the workers to be more enthusiastic about their work and punishing the workers for any alleged misconduct only after fair hearing.  To this may be added, catching up with international best practices.  The influences of this thought are of course discernible in the Obasanjo reform package between 2004-2007 which thematically focused on key areas of improving service delivery and promoting good governance with emphasis on budget and management and procurement system; accountability issues; human resource management; operation and system issues; and value re-orientation and integrity.  If all these were done during the Obasanjo democratic years, what then was and is still the need for other reforms by the succeeding governments?   Apart from the fact that reforms in human society are always a sporadic and a ceaseless exercise which will often be dictated by the prevailing challenges and developments within and without a state, and also within the service itself, the fact remains that, our public service has failed to meet people’s expectations because of the missing gap in our reforms which lies majorly in “value re-orientation and integrity” issues.  Granted that all structural and institutional re-engineering are done, if a state’s public service is still deficient in proper values and integrity, the outcome of such reforms will at best remain fuliginous and superficial.  The proper values and integrity of a public service consists in unity of vision; patriotism; respect for the ethics of the service and the rule of law;  and without any fear of being accused of breaching the rule of secularity of the state, I include spirituality – selflessness and “other-regarding”.

    A wider view of these values and integrity indicate that the larger Nigerian society in which the public service is situated and which it also serves, is morally bankrupt or stripped of the right values and integrity.  This being so, it is very hard therefore for a public service to rise above the society that has produced it.  A society gets the type of leadership it deserves, it is said.  As with leadership, so also it is true with the character and quality of a state’s public service.  Here then lies the dilemma of reforming the Nigerian public service.  This is better articulated in this questionnaire:  how do you reform a public service which is ethnically polarised as the society in which it is situated?  How do you reform a public service which is as morally bankrupt as its social ecology?  How do you reform a service whose visions are as divided as those of the society from where it emanated?

    How do you reform a public service whose vacant positions are for sale and the members of the society are willing to buy instead of protesting?  How do you get rid of corruption in the public service when the society continues to tell the story of the “ten lepers” to a mandarin who graciously declines to take gratification just to convince him to succumb?  How do you reform a service whose members are recruited from the society where majority of its members carry the cross of Jesus Christ on their chests, without carrying his deeds in their hearts and conduct?  How do you reform a public service in a society that is ready to throw red carpet reception for a corrupt public officer?   How do you reform a service whose some of its members are recruited from a society whose majority  has read the Hadiths of Prophet Mohammed in holiness and pureness several times and are still addicted to shady deals in service?

    Whatever answers we may provide to these questions, certainly, the sub-structure determines the super-structure.  The public service of a state of course mirrors the state.  It cannot therefore be isolated from the larger society for any radical or meaningful reform without first reforming the larger society.  Our failure to do this first has been the bane of all the past attempts to successfully reform our public service.  Is the Holy Koran not therefore, scientific enough to have concluded that the condition of a people cannot change unless they change their hearts?  This is why the present government‘s call for change in our society will, if we yield, go a long way in positively changing all the negative idiosyncrasies that have made most of the gains of the structural and institutional reforms in the public service imperceptible and pale.

     

    • Dr. Adebisi writes from Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State.

  • Institute harps on quality service, ethics in public service

    The Nigerian Institute of Training and Development (NITAD) has stressed the need to enhance responsive governance through quality service delivery.

    It’s President and Chairman of Governing Council, Mrs. Janet K. Jolaso, said the Institute’s “2017 Learners Forum” was targeted at inculcating dedication and professionalism in the public service.

    Speaking during the NITAD’s yearly seminar on human resource development held in Lagos, with the theme: “Private Sector Mindset in Public Service”, Jolaso said there was a need for an attitudinal change among civil servants to bridge the entrenched performance dichotomy between the private and public sectors.

    At the event attended by executives from private and public sectors, the NITAD boss argued that the role of public servants in bringing about good governance could not be over-emphasised, even though the private sector was still more being business driven and profit orientated.

    She expressed the hope that the forum will, through experienced and successful senior career officers and their counterparts in the private sector, diagnose and calibrate its efficiency indices through a balanced analysis, value chains, prospects and challenges.

    “We hope, at the end of the day, to chart a way forward to guarantee a better future through a responsible and responsive public service structure, capable of embracing entrepreneurial spirit, strong enough to support the political class to deliver the dividends of democracy to the citizenry”, Mrs. Jolaso said.

    Speaking from industry perspective, the Group General Manager, Tower Aluminum, Dr. Olawale Fatolu, said the mind-set of those in the private sector was miles apart from the public sector, as they were mindful of profitability and efficient service to customers.

    He said this was unlike the public sector that depends on processing, compliance and application fees to earn revenue and, most times, multiple taxation at the expense of service to consumers.

    According to Fatolu, the bane of the public sector is the regulated and regimented environment. He argued that though they may have all the parameters and indices to perform, the operating environment remains a limiting factor.

    He, however, advised the government to encourage best global practices among workers to deliver good governance to the public.

    Dr. Banji Ogunbiyi, who spoke on professional practice and industrial relations, stated that in the private sector, discipline and sanctions are reactive and transcendentional unlike in the public sector with its bureaucracy that delays punishment for offenders.

    According to him, the Organised Private Sector (OPS) is highly competitive and pragmatic unlike civil servants who wait for their promotion, according to the number of years spent in service.

  • UN praises public service reforms, anti-graft fight

    The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Nigeria has praised the Federal Government for its efforts at reforming the public service through its anti-corruption drive.

    UNDP Country Director Mr. Lamin Beyai gave the commendation at the Training of Trainers on Corruption Risk Assessments (CRA) at the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN).

    ACAN is the training wing of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), located in Keffi, Nasarawa State.

    Speaking through the UNDP Deputy Country Director-Programme, Mandisa Mashologu, Beyai said the government being aware of the rating of Nigeria by Transparency International (TI) as the 136th most corrupt country out of 168 countries.

    He said the rating was lower than the average for Sub-Saharan Africa and that government has put in tremendous efforts through institutional reforms, enforcements, prosecution, entrenching the culture of integrity and capacity building of staff of anti-corruption agencies to tackle the menace.

    ‘Tackling corruption remains a top priority of the government as one of the means to facilitate efficient delivery of public services and enhance national development opportunities.

    ‘The process has resulted in on-going institutional reforms, which are already yielding positive results. We believe that an efficient and effective public service can positively contribute to the ease of doing business in Nigeria and act as stimulant to curb corrupt practices,” Beyal said.

  • ‘Develop a strong public service’

    Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has urged Human Resource Management officers to develop a road map for the reaffirmation of a strong and unified public service.

    He spoke yesterday at the opening of a three-day retreat for members of commissions and other related boards.

    The governor explained that a unified and non-discriminatory service will guarantee the much-desired efficient and effective delivery.

    He said: “Given the experience I have gathered in the mainstream service and Local government service, l am convinced that a unified and non-discriminatory public service will guarantee the much desired efficient and effective service delivery.

    “This will naturally result from the application of uniform rules, standards and procedures across the various service commissions.”

    Head of Service (HoS) Mrs Olabowale Ademola said the retreat was organised  to evolve common standards on human resource policies.

  • ‘Gold medal for public service’

    In the context of the reality that words have denotative value, it is worth contemplating the import of a particular letter of commendation and its remarkable testimonial quality. It was written by the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, and the recipient was Akinwunmi Ambode who had retired voluntarily after a 27-year career in the civil service, including stints as the Accountant- General of Lagos State from 2006 and 2012, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, and Auditor-General for Local Government. This background is striking because it highlights Ambode, who left to pursue other dreams,  as probably the most experienced individual in terms of familiarity with the state civil service operations to seek the position of governor since Lagos State was created in 1967.

    Fashola reportedly wrote: “I write on behalf of the people of Lagos to commend your high sense of dedication, selflessness and integrity which you brought to bear on the civil service. I wish to specifically remark that working closely with you has been of tremendous mutual benefit, particularly in the present administration.” He continued: “You have displayed high sense of professionalism and have been a good team player, guided by the philosophy of a true public officer, who must place himself last while rendering service to the public. We are convinced that your brilliance and zeal will make you excel in your future endeavours.”

    Who wouldn’t be proud of such a glowing portrayal? Unsurprisingly, Ambode, 51, the Chief Executive Officer of Brandsmiths Consulting, made a passing reference to the characterisation at his May 15 book launch at the Civic Centre, Lagos.  The presentation of two books, Public Sector Accounting by Ambode, and his biography, The Art of Selfless Service by Marina Osoba, provided a fitting forum for him to bask in the glory of his recognition.   “The letter of commendation by Fashola is my gold medal for public service,” Ambode said at the event.

    Of course, the letter may be inadequate to catapult him to the high political office of governor which he seeks; nevertheless, it is a sufficient pointer to his competence. Indeed, the writer of the letter himself also deserves commendation. There is no doubt that Fashola was in a position to know and evaluate Ambode’s contribution, and it is to his credit that he was straightforward in his depiction of  Ambode’s worth. He could have chosen to downplay the man’s role and his observed performance, especially given the fact that the letter’s commendatory content could always be quoted to advance the recipient’s interest. A self-absorbed autotheistic leader would not have written in such a manner about someone else; and such leaders abound who go about with a destructive mentality. So, Fashola deserves respect for his demonstration of disinterestedness.

    Did Fashola have an idea of Ambode’s ambition to succeed him as governor? Was the song of praise calculated to help him achieve his aspiration through an implied endorsement?  Or it just didn’t matter to Fashola what Ambode’s next move might be after leaving the civil service, and however he might exploit the laudatory comments for self-advancement.

    It is interesting that Ambode, a would-be governor and a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC),  on August 21 presented a paper  titled “Public Finance: Probity and Accountability” during  a two-day workshop organised by the Lagos State Government and the Lagos Business School at the Pan-African University, Lagos. He spoke to 300 youths from tertiary educational institutions across the state, and told them: “If we take the concept of resource generation, allocation and distribution into cognisance and apply the principles of good governance, we will achieve economic growth and development.”

    He was on familiar turf. Ambode is credited with designing a system that increased the state’s revenue generation from N600 million to N10 billion. A related excerpt from his biography is illustrative of his expertise: “In a popular business newspaper, Business Day, of Tuesday 2nd July 2013, it was reported that Fiscal Management in Lagos State had surpassed that of the Federal Government and internally generated revenue from taxes has touched the 75% mark in stark contrast to the Federal Government’s 20%. Also, the paper further stated that Lagos State makes up to 20% of total Nigerian GDP and 40% of non-oil GDP.”

    The narrative continued: “All these gains from the smallest state geographically (that is in terms of  size) showing that Lagos State which is without any of the rich mineral resources that other states have in abundance can think outside the box and create wealth using what little it has and building on its commercial base.  These great strides are particularly noted to have happened in the last six years (2006-2012) during which Akin headed the State Treasury Office (STO).”

    The importance of wealth creation to “the authoritative allocation of values” cannot be overemphasised; and it may well be good luck for the state to have a governor whose competency in this critical sphere has been established beyond any iota of contradiction.

    However, the megacity would require more than a mechanistic attention to figures; and it would appear that Ambode also has a humanistic appeal. Such a fusion is not always available in the power ring. Ambode’s definition of leadership is enlightening, although it could be said that words are never enough and would always need the potency of demonstrativeness. He said: “A true leader sees his work as selfless service towards a higher purpose. A true leader should be judged by what he has not – ego, arrogance and self-interest.”

    Demonstrable commitment to good governance and ability to deliver what the people yearn for should rank among the uppermost qualifications for the type of progressive leadership that would benefit the state at this juncture. As Fashola prepares to leave the stage next year, the state deserves an exemplary successor who will be focused on excellence in office informed by a mastery of wealth creation and a humanitarian orientation.

    The question of who should rule remains fundamental in the society’s search for leaders who have  not only the  capacity to make a difference but also the enthusiasm to do so; and it is always agonising whenever the wrong individual emerges and works against good governance. A square peg in a round hole would most likely reshape the hole; and it would then require far more effort to recreate a round hole.