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By Ekpa Stanley Ekpa
Have you ever written letters to public institutions or tried contacting agencies of governments through the official “contact us” on their websites or social media handles, or even submitted hard copy letters hoping they will respond to you? From my experience, only few agencies of governments respond, while a few friendly ones will tell you to “do follow up”. Meaning you should never expect any official reply to your letter unless you follow up in “two weeks”. The idea of public service delivery becomes defected, when citizens cannot have easy access to information and systems that enable them to communicate their needs, opinions, and suggestions to governments and their agents. Given the efficiency challenges faced by the Nigerian Postal Service, the primary agency that should have provided a cost-effective correspondence service for state-owned institutions, digital responses via email correspondence becomes a sustainable and cost-effective alternative, yet, most MDAs hardly maintain digital correspondence desks.
In a rapidly evolving digital era, where citizens transact through swift and automated technologies, citizens want governments to deliver more responsive, affordable and innovative public service to the people. When you consider this emerging reality, you will no doubt know that the future which started yesterday needs a different model of public service delivery and responsiveness to social demands – an efficient public service delivery that runs twenty-four hours to meet the needs of human life at a speed of light. Hence, as we review the one year in office of Mr. President and some State Governors, we must do so bearing in mind the question of who reviews the efficiency of civil servants and nonelected public officials, in delivering timely and useful responses and services to the general public. Those responsible to providing public goods and services must respond to citizens’ needs in good time and such response should be consistent with citizens requests and demands.
In order to achieve the purpose of which the State and governments exist, the next generation government must be reliable, responsive, fast and closer to the people, in providing their needs through a flow of ease of citizens-public officials’ interactions. To create such future public service efficiency, emerging civil servants and public officials must appreciate the role of government in a different way from what we know our government to be today. The next generation of public sector leaders must understand that government must be available, innovative and digital, to satisfy public demands. Since almost every human transaction are now successfully switched to smart systems, the services of governments and their agents must swiftly switch to digital too, in order to be available to everyone, everywhere. Public services must be connected, integrated and made convenient for citizens to follow through without long hours of physical presence, necessitating long hours of trips and waiting on ques.
The next generation civil servants and public officials are required to provide premium service to the general public. Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum set the goal, that “we want to our government to welcome customers more professionally than hotels; we want our government to manage processes better than banks”. This requires that public institutions have to hire citizens who are public and people-oriented, excellence driven, and ready to provide them with the convenience and economic dignity that will enable them to do their work professionally.
If almost all sectors of private enterprises are open for twenty-four hours, the next generation governments and their agents must deliver efficient and effective public services for twenty-four hours. Our government cannot afford to go on 5pm closure, knowing that the function of the government is to secure the life and social wellbeing of every citizen, irrespective what time of the day or night the “wellbeing” is needed. Human needs requireround the cloth solutions, and so does the role of government. But leaders cannot effectively be there for the people unless they are empathic to the plights of the people. Governance should be more about how leaders connect to the needs, pain and joy of citizens, rather than how leaders want people to understand their excuses, incompetence and failures.
Perhaps, the more important route to achieving public sector responsiveness, is public sector openness and transparency. We can start with questions on how accessible are agencies and States audit reports? How open and up to date are audit legal framework, and effectiveness of State Assemblies and Local Government Legislative Arms to review reports of governance at the subnational and local government levels? Again, and every now, our collective attention seems to be fixed on the activities of the federal government alone, thereby leaving the subnational and local governments unaccountable. The next generation civil servants and public officials have a duty to know that the beginning of openness in governance is a culture that recognizes that there is no shame or foolishness in openness and transparency, even when it is inconvenient. It does not matter if it is at the lowest level, we need responsiveness and accountability from every level of leadership.
Government agencies must rejig its systems to ensure that their departments and staff are well trained with emerging governance skill of responsiveness to public demands. This requires them to respond efficiently and effectively to people’s real needs. If smaller organizations can send regular newsletters to people on their mail list, government agencies have no excuse not to use digital channels to reach citizens on government policies, strategies, programmes, activities and resources utilization. This requires a Nigerian bureaucratic system that is truly responsive, sensitive, sympathetic and able to relate to the needs of citizens within a reasonable time. This will be the easiest way to building public trust, confidence and public participation in government processes.
• Ekpa, a lawyer and leadership consultant writes via [email protected]
