Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, who led a delegation of Heads of Service in the states and federal and states permanent secretaries to Malaysia and Singapore, on a study tour, has reiterated her commitment to reposition to civil service.

This was even as the Administrator and CEO of the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN), Dr. Abdul-Ganiyu Obatoyinbo, has listed workers commitment, dedication and implementation of extant rules as part of measures to enhance the mandate of public service in the country.

Both spoke on arrive at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, after a week-long benchmarking and study tour group in both countries.

Oyo-Ita assured that the Federal Government was committed to reposition the Civil Service for a better and more efficient service delivery in line with the change agenda of the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Obatoyinbo, on his part, noted that the only way to make the nation’s public service effective was for Nigerians to see themselves as change agents and not leaving it to the government alone.

“We all have to support our leaders, be committed and believe in their country. We have to see ourselves as change agents.

“We discover that most of our legislation are outdated and we have to review and update the public service rules. There are also some policies that need to be reviewed to meet the modern contemporary needs and challenges.

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“There is also the need for periodic training and fine tuning the curriculum. Every civil servant must attend the training for at least seven days and it is compulsory under the nation’s law.

“This study tour would not be a jamboree as it has the buy-in of President Muhammadu Buhari. Also, we have all the heads of service of all the states, and we all saw things for ourselves. We all need to imbibe the spirit of patriotism to fast track the developmental processes.”

Also, the Kogi State Head of Service, Mrs. Deborah Adefunke Ogunmola, attributed the development of Malaysia and Singapore civil services to the commitment of their people.

“They love their country and are dedicated. We are going to our various states to impact what we learnt and it was good that all the heads of the service of various states were together,” she said.

On her part, the Head of Service of Kaduna State, Hajiya Bariatu Yusuf Mohammed, said Nigeria has the best of laws but lacking in implementation and compliance.

According to her, “We saw lots of innovation in Malaysia and Singapore. Kaduna State has lots of innovations too. They have integrity units in both countries, especially in Singapore very interesting.

“They (Singapore) have rules similar to ours but they complied with theirs. Our problem here is we have one of the best rules but we do not comply. I will work to change the attitudes of civil servants to start complying with rules in the interest of the society.”