HOS tasks govs on capacity building

BY PETER OKUTU

ABAKALIKI – THE Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, HOS, Professor Oladapo Afolabi, weekend, called on state governors in the country to create a conducive environment to ensure that the capacities of civil servants were enhanced to align with the latest prerequisite obtainable in the twenty-first century.

He noted that apart from promotion opportunities which capacity building provides, it also instilled self-confidence and knowledge base of workers in a very short period of time.

Prof. Afolabi, who made the call in Abakaliki while commissioning an ultra-modern Staff Development Centre built by the state government, noted that while the civil service remained the engine room for both economic and social development of any state, it was necessary for the government to ensure its efficiency and fitness at all levels of administration.

He said:  “We all know what the Civil Service stands for both at the local government, state and federal government. There is no doubt that the Civil Service is the stabilizing force, the engine room for economic and social development.”

“We don’t have an alternative; therefore, it is right for us to say that this work force must be fixed, competent and extremely efficient.

“Today when you see an average civil service and you tell him to introduce himself, he will say, I’m just a civil servant. So what does that represent?

“There is a personality, confidence and social strata problem. Such a person cannot give you the best because of such mentality. So this edifice will provide the civil servant the opportunity to increase his or her knowledge base for greater productivity.

“As I mounted the saddle of leadership four months ago, I made capacity building of civil servants the major thrust of tenure.”

Earlier in his remarks, the governor of Ebonyi State, Martin Elechi, appealed to the Head of Civil Service of the Federation to use his good office to ensure that Ebonyi people were represented at the Federal Civil Service.

He added that the Staff Development Centre had been designed to provide avenues for civil servants in the state to increase their knowledge base and be well acquainted with courses necessary for their statutory upgrade.

Elechi said his administration was not concentrating on increasing workers salaries at present, but was rather committed to ensuring that they (workers) enjoyed certain schemes as housing schemes, among others.

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