The Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has stated that his administration has implemented a number of policies to revamp the public sector in order to guarantee that it serves the people of Edo State in a manner that is both effective and efficient.
This was expressed by Governor Obaseki during the opening of the John Odigie Oyegun Public Service Academy (JOOPSA) in Benin City. The academy was commissioned in honor of the former Governor of Edo State, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, who just celebrated his 84th birthday anniversary.
The Governor, who was in attendance, gave his thanks to all of the attendees of the event by saying, “Thank you all for attending this formal inauguration of this Institution of the John Odigie Oyegun Public Service Academy (JOOPSA), which is an Institution built to transform public and civil service delivery and bridge the knowledge gap of our public servants.”
“The ability of a government to execute its policies is largely dependent on the quality and ability of its public servants. That is why from the beginning of our Administration, the transformation of the public service of our State has been given priority.
“It is clear in my mind that it will be impossible to deliver on the mandate of our Administration without a strong and effective Public and Civil Service. Unfortunately, the public service we met was very weak in several areas. Its processes and procedures have become blurred because they were manual and therefore the civil service was sluggish and prone to corruption and environmentally hazardous; offices were without proper toilet facilities.”
Obaseki disclosed that, “The welfare of workers was terrible and I wondered why the civil servants themselves allowed their situation to deteriorate to such an extent. Nothing like performance Management; nothing was done strategically, and criteria for promotion was never merit-based. You must belong to society to be considered, and training and human capacity development was relegated.
“It was now important to change the narrative if we are to succeed to reposition Edo for sustainable, socio economic growth.”
He went on to mention that his administration has, over the course of the past six years, adopted a comprehensive approach to reorganizing the public and civil service in Edo State so that it is able to operate in an effective and efficient manner.
According to him, “Edo State Transformation and Enhancement Projects in the public service which we call Edo-STEP has resulted in significant and unprecedented improvement in the capacity of the public servants to deliver optimally.
“Today, the public service in Edo State is the most digitalized public service in Nigeria, with over 5,000 computers and fiber optic connection across offices in the State. By September 1st 2023, Edo State would have achieved a paperless governance environment which will make us the first State to achieve this feat. I will be the last governor to work with physical files in the State.
“The offices of our public servants in Edo State are the best they can be, and well equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, which can be compared to any you can find in the world, with 24/7 electricity and fast internet connectivity.”
He also noted, “We have taken the welfare of our public servants as a priority because we know that if you don’t pay people properly, and take care of them, you shouldn’t expect high productivity from them. We don’t joke with the welfare of our workforce as we ensure that all working with us have heath insurance, as you don’t need to pay for treatment.
“We have fully funded contributory pension scheme, which we started 1st of January 2017, and I am told that the savings in that scheme are approaching N10 billion, as we will not have a situation when people retire, you don’t have money to pay them.”
Obaseki stated that his administration has begun the process of establishing JOOPSA as a center of excellence in order to train and improve the capacity of public officials to enable them to operate at their highest potential. This was done in order to address the human capacity gap that existed within the civil service.
He continued, “The Academy will undertake training, research, exchange and intellectual linkages with other local and International Institutions. It is clear to us that only a well skilled workforce can drive meaningful and impactful change in governance and sustain our development efforts in Edo State.
“The fact that we have moved Edo State Civil service to an electronic platform makes it important to have the facilities where we can train and improve the knowledge of our workforce, given the fact that the training needs for efficient service delivery are always going to be reoccurring because technology keeps changing. Therefore, it is important we have a permanent structure and system to continue to upgrade our workforce in the State.
“Edo State has decided to go digital as the world has taken that direction, and Edo is leading the way as we invest in extensive digital infrastructure, as we are now on the verge of completing the link of 2000 KM of fiber optic connection across Edo State to connect every local government area to enable people link up to what we are doing in JOOPSA.
“Our workforce will continue to receive training to opt and deliver effective and efficient service delivery to contribute to the development and growth of the State.”
“We decided to name this academy after the first Executive Governor of Edo State, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, because he is an example of what the State tries to propagate. That of integrity, fidelity, intellectualism and excellence.”
“It is important to honour those who started the journey, to encourage others to sacrifice for the Country,” Governor Obaseki added.