Moshood Adebayo
Lagos Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has said the state targets 3rd Africa’s largest economy in 2023.
Ambode, who spoke during the inauguration of a special advocacy campaign to engender growth mindset among civil servants in the state, also lamented the attitudes of civil servants in the country and charged them to change their mindset for the overall interest of governance and people.
Although he said the advocacy is expected to, initially, last between three and six months, the governor added that adequate arrangements have been firmed up to sustain it for a longer period with the ultimate aim of instilling growth mindset in all civil servants in the state.
Speaking through the Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr. Akintola Benson-Oke, the governor said the change of ‘fixed mindset’ to ‘growth mindset’, by civil servants will enhance service delivery and performance, which are necessary ingredients for a smart city which the state is gradually moving into.
He said: “We are convinced that by having individual officers of the Lagos State public service inculcate the ‘growth mindset’, we can attain a truly effective, productive and transformational public service that will surpass the expectations of all stakeholders.
“In practical terms, our advocacy will be to challenge and encourage officers of the Lagos State public service to embrace ‘growth mindset’ such that the objectives of advancing the economic potential and moving the state forward can be realised.”
Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kehinde Bamigbetan, said the advocacy was meant “to ensure civil servants are trained in skills that will give them right capacity and attitude to take a different view of their services and redefine their work in terms of the content by the audience and customers who patronise the services of government.
“Basically, what we are saying is government is a service centre and the ‘customer’, they say, ‘is the king’. So, for Lagos State, a very industrial environment, a very commercial environment, the most advanced cosmopolitan city in this country, we also have highly sophisticated citizens who deserve services at optimal level.
“This, we hope and believe, will enable us to change the attitude so that every civil servant sees the man on the street as his customer, and with this, we would have also recorded major landmark in organisational behaviour, which will be something for people to come and study in years to come.”
Director General of Lagos State Office of Transformation, Creativity and Innovation, Mr. Toba Otusanya, said the advocacy was intended to change the orientation of public servants as the state moves from standard mega city to an emerging smart city.
“As a state, we are actually moving from standard mega city to an emerging smart city; and if we are doing that, it basically means we need to actually develop public servants of the 21st century; public servants who are smart; public servants who are able to actually cut through red tape; public servants who can think outside the box and have all the necessary skills to be able to challenge the status quo, proffer solutions and bring new ideas to the table.”