Osinbajo Canvasses Re-training of Public Servants for Effective Service Delivery

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has advised that with technological advancement, it was imperative that Nigeria develops well-trained, knowledgeable and well-motivated public servants for effective service delivery and excellent performance.

 Osinbajo stated this when he played host to graduands of the pioneer cohort of the Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG) & Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government (AIG-BSG) Public Leadership programme, sponsored by the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation at the State House, Abuja.

The inaugural in-country programme for talented, mid-career public servants, a partnership between the federal and state governments, with the AIG and the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, lasted for about seven months. The participants were drawn from the civil service at national and sub-national levels.

According to the Vice President, it is vital to provide cutting-edge training to public servants because once public goods cannot be delivered effectively, development suffers, the commons are all at risk and the overall quality of life of the people is undermined.

He said, “our governments have never been short of ideas, policies or roadmaps. Indeed, we have some of the best written and most insightful policies on practically all issues, but we sometimes fall flat on implementation. The reason is the quality of the human resources that we deploy in the public sector.

“Unlike in the private sector, where usually the profit motive makes it imperative to provide relevant and cutting-edge training to ensure that staff are well equipped to deliver on targets and KPIs, the public service usually has traditionally taken an approach, the result being a bureaucracy unable to develop, but more importantly deliver on government initiatives and programmes.”

The Vice President also spoke on the need to build values of integrity, honesty and transparency in public service.

“Recognising that ensuring integrity in the workplace is not merely a moral issue, it is an existential issue for the country itself. Why do systems anywhere in the world uphold basic notions of honesty, transparency and integrity? It is because it makes economic sense; dishonesty undermines the entire enterprise. We must also understand and disseminate our rules on governance in such a way as to make it clear that petty or grand corruption kills progress and will destroy the nation’s best,” he added.

Osinbajo further noted that the AIG-BSG programme was crucial to developing the country’s public service, especially with global changes and technology.

He commended the programme’s curriculum on strengthening public organisations, especially the question of goal setting, values and gauging criteria for high performance.

Speaking earlier, the Founder and Chairman of the AIG, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, thanked the Vice President for inspiring, supporting and encouraging the Initiative from the start, especially during the period of teething challenges.

He narrated how the Vice President told him, “’let me bring the Head of Service into the same room as you and have a conversation, and let us see what it would bring.’ Within a week or two, that meeting took place. I’ll really like to thank you for giving us the confidence, for encouraging us and making sure that we didn’t give up. But most importantly, I’d like to thank you for your action that has made all of the cooperation between the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation and the Nigerian government possible. And please continue to support us, encourage us; continue to call me to account whenever you see me.”