Training And Re-Training Of Public Servants Is Important, Ambode, Utomi Says

Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi-Ambode

Ambode Speaks On Empowering Civil Servants To Implement Government Programmes

The Governor of Lagos State, Mr Akinwumi Ambode  has once again re-emphasized the need for all public servants to keep improving their skills through  effective training and retraining which will ensure sustenance of a modern, robust and effective public service.

The Governor, who was Speaking during a two-day training for senior managers who will advise, implement government’s programmes  tagged “High Impact Decision Making Programme For Directors in Lagos State Public Service,”said that as a responsible government, Lagos places premium on the establishment and maintenance of effective public service.

The Governor, who was represented by the Commissioner in the Ministry of Establishments, Akintola Benson Oke, also noted that the essence of the training is to ensure that public servants are well-equipped to discharge government’s duties effectively, Oke added that for this reason, “Governor Ambode has mandated the state Ministry of Training and Establishment to keep on training and retraining public servants to ensure that they are the best in the country.”

He said: “The training will make them have improved productivity in whatever they do. If Lagos public servants are to cope effectively with their counterparts all over the world, they need proper training and retraining. The governor is trying to replicate what is obtainable in the advanced democracies of the world by doing this; he is trying to move Lagos from being a meg-city to a smart city.”

Also at the event, Professor Pat Utomi, professor of political economy and management expert, while speaking on the importance of the training, said: “We live in a very complex, sophisticated and competitive world. Anyone making decisions in this kind of environment must be very sophisticated in gathering and processing information.”

He added: “To be able to make choices out of hundreds of thousands of options, the decision maker should involve in training and retraining to be capable of taking decisions capable of affecting millions of lives.”

Utomi stated that the training is to help “create an entrepreneurial public service that can look at the stakeholders and essentially align with the needs of those stakeholders to deliver and achieve the goals that the government has set.”

Oke, while emphasizing on the governor’s stance on training of public servants on the use of information technology, stated, “at the end of the day, they will be able to apply it to suit the specificity of Lagos state, so that Lagosians as a whole would be able to enjoy the dividends of democracy.

“In the next 50 years, creativity, innovation, ideas will continue to rule the entire Lagos state and the world. That is why the state has brought eminent scholars to help activate government policies.”

Oke said that since “the ability to make proper decision at the right time enhances efficient civil service, the governor has mandated us that the issue of decision making will taken seriously in Lagos State.”