ABUJA—President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigeria’s civil service has lost its steam to poverty of ideas and corruption, which have resulted in inefficiency and poor output.
He regretted that the civil service, which had international reckoning, had drastically declined.
The President made the observation at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja, yesterday, while launching the Capacity Building Programmes for Public Servants—Structured Mandatory Assessment-based Training Programme (SMAT-P) and Leadership Enhancement And Development Programme (LEAD-P).
The President, who was represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said: “Many who mourn the decline of the civil service today from its days as ‘primus inter pares’ in the Commonwealth to one which has earned a reputation for inefficiency, low productivity, corruption and insensitivity to the needs of the public fall into the error of thinking that the problem is a poverty of ideas and capacity on the part of the civil service; whereas, it is the inability to clearly articulate a vision, ensure that the service develops the required capacity to articulate and implement the various components of the vision.
“Here, we’re launching capacity building initiatives designed to strengthen the leadership at all levels in the service and build a new performance management system. But the fundamental questions are: what is the ethos, the ethical and ideological world view that the service is to deliver? To what purpose do we deploy leadership skills and for what ends? How can we measure performance when the objective itself is unclear?“Without clear answers to these questions, the service will grope in the dark and take the government and people along with it on a blind-leading-the-blind voyage. So, what sort of country do we envision?”
President Buhari, however, told the civil servants that his administration was envisioning a country where rule of law must be respected.“We want to build a nation with the citizen as its reason for being and thus its sole focus and responsibility. The citizen, regardless of station in life, must be respected by the governing authorities and treated with dignity. Flowing from these is the imperative that our society must be governed by the rule of law administered by a trustworthy, fearless, impartial and efficient judiciary”, he said.
According to him, a new Nigeria is possible “if we desire it badly enough to fight for it”.
While emphasizing the need to build a virile country with contributions from the civil servants, President Buhari said that “an army cannot afford indiscipline, inefficiency or lack of focus especially because the hopes and aspirations of a whole society rest on your shoulders”.
The president said the civil service must see itself as servants and facilitators of commerce and entrepreneurship, designing policies and removing obstacles to doing business in Nigeria.
He said: “What are the strategic and financial planning initiatives important in a strong private sector led, free market economy but with a robust social protection system for the poor majority?
“What are the crucial communications to make to the people in a season requiring sacrifice and perseverance on account of falling revenues or for that matter communicate the position that our anti-corruption, zero tolerance stand, is not merely a moral or ethical stand but a developmental construct that recognises that corruption if not apprehended will destroy all institutions, the economy and eventually our society?”
In his welcome address earlier, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr Danladi Kifasi, said the overall objective of the launched programmes was to address capacity and leadership challenges in the civil service.“Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, permit me to say that today’s event is in furtherance of the vision to reposition the Public Service by focusing on building its capacity and enhancing leadership at all levels. It is in fulfillment of this vision,that my Office developed two distinctive and strategic Capacity Building Programmes, the Structured Mandatory Assessment-Based Training Programme (SMAT-P) and the Leadership Enhancement And Development Programme (LEAD-P).
The overall objective of the Capacity Building Programmes is to address the twin challenges of capacity and leadership deficit in the Public Service today.“While LEAD-P is a completely new innovation, SMAT-P builds on previous capacity building programmes developed by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. The point of departure of SMAT-P from previous programmes is that it is structured, mandatory and assessment-based.“It has been strategically packaged to be a continuous, coherent, coordinated and sustainable approach for effective capacity building for Public Servants, based on local and international best practice. It emphasizes the areas of competencies and service delivery capability critical for the delivery of government policies and programmes.
“Of the many challenges the Public Service faces, effective leadership has rightly been identified as one of the most critical. If addressed along with other crucial issues, effective leadership would help to re-invigorate the Service on the path to high performance. The Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme is one of the elements of the new Leadership Development Framework for the Federal Civil Service.
“LEAD-P will help to identify potential leaders at the various levels in the service, nurture developing leaders and enhance the capacity and capability of existing leaders. Its main objective is to build a crop of trustworthy, dependable and competent leaders at all levels who will deliver results in critical positions and lead the Service to achieve its goals. The LEAD-P Curriculum, which has been developed to global standards, is suitable for both the Public Service and the Private Sector”, he said.
The event also attracted Head of Service of Enugu, Bauchi, Imo, Lagos States amongst others.
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