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- As Okebukola warns Civil servants will struggle by 2050 without training
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The need of developing the finest minds within the Federal Civil Service to close the skills gap and acquire the necessary knowledge to reform the Service has been emphasised by Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF), Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan.
She stated this on Thursday in Abuja at the 2024 Public Lecture to mark the Annual Civil Service Week, with the theme: “Education Fit For the 21st Century: Preparing Nigerian Public Servants to Address Global Challenges While Fostering Employee Engagement, Retention, and Job Satisfaction,” which focused on the salient sectoral issues of grooming motivating and retaining fit-for-purpose civil servants in an environment that has globally changed and become difficult.
The Head of Service disclosed that the Service is grooming a new crop of leaders of high skills through the Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme(LEAD-P), as encapsulated in the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021-2025(FCSSIP 2021–2025).
According to her, more than 200 officers have already received training and been assigned to different government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) as part of the LEAD-P initiative. She added that by the end of 2025, the Service hopes to identify, mentor, and train 500 future civil service leaders.
The Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme (LEAD-P) is a top talent training course for Civil Servants in Grade Level 10-14.
As part of the programme, participating civil servants are required to undergo an 8-week internship in a private sector organisation to gain experience in efficient work processes, organisational values, ethics, innovation, and effective management styles.
In order to guarantee effective service delivery to the public, the Head of the Civil Service stated that her Office, in collaboration with the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, has made significant investments in employee training and retraining.
She emphasised the importance of ongoing education and worker capacity building even more, saying that talent acquisition and competence building are critical to the Federal Civil Service.
According to Yemi-Esan, a significant obstacle in the Nigerian civil service was the lack of structures and focused programmes in the past because many employees lacked the necessary information, abilities, and skills to carry out their jobs.
As a result, she exhorted government employees to recommit themselves to creating a culture of learning and making significant contributions to Nigeria’s advancement.
Also speaking, the Guest Lecturer at the Public Lecture, Peter Okebukola, said education needed in the workplace in 21st Century involves critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, innovation, collaboration and team work, digital literacy, flexibility and adaptability, social and cross-cultural skills.
Others, according to the former Executive Secretary National Universities Commission, include leadership and accountability, entrepreneurship, use of technology, environmental literacy, resilience and stress management, among others.
He urged the federal government to run programmes that will equip Nigerian civil servants with skills on digital literacy, team work, media literacy, curiosity and others needed for the 21st century.
“These skills include problem-solving, curiosity, teamwork, perseverance, ability to work with others, that relate to teamwork and about 21 other skills. So, the idea is for the federal civil service and other services to run programmes for civil servants on problem-solving, teamwork, digital literacy, media literacy, environmental literacy, to enable them to prepare for that work. So, that is a major recommendation,” he said.
Okebukola said a study showed that there were gaps in the civil service in the area of service delivery, efficiency and use of ICTs, saying civil servants’ capacity to perform will be boosted if they were trained, given the necessary tools and prepared for digital literacy by 2025.
“By 2050 if you don’t plan, you are going nowhere in terms of delivering better on your mandate. This lecture is about painting the scenarios of the future of Nigeria by 2050. Where is the civil service going to be? Where is education going to be? More importantly, how will we educate our civil servants who are the engines of development in a way that they would be well-treated and we put values to attain that beautiful world as it should be in 2050. What will be the skills that are needed? And how will we, through education, give these skills to our civil servants and others to be able to prepare for that world?” he said.
The high point of yesterday’s public lecture was the presentation of Global University Network for Innovation, (GUNI) to the Head of Service by Okebukola for exemplary service.
In his goodwill message, former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, said the Civil Service Week, by its usually apt and well-crafted themes, has remained a true reminder and calibration of the essence and place of the Civil Service as the engine room of policy, articulation and implementation.
Represented by Akin Arikawe, the former Head of Service said, “Education Fit for the 21st Century must address a shift from the conventional competencies and approach to both techniques and delivery so as to catch up with global best practices.
“This is simply a wakeup call to catch up with modern trends and ways of doing things in the Civil Service.
“To sustain and consolidate the core values of accountability, meritocracy, professionalism, loyalty and efficiency in the Civil Service, our education must be tailored towards catching up on level playing grounds with modern trends.”
