Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, on Monday, inaugurated the Edo State Civil/Public Service Transformation and Enhancement Programme (EdoSTEP), a new initiative to improve efficiency and service delivery in the state’s civil and public service.
Obaseki, at the launch of the programme at the Government House in Benin City, said employment into the state’s civil and public service is no longer on the basis of nepotism or favouritism.
According to him, “As you can see, we are no longer going to employ people into the civil and public service on the basis of ‘man know man’ in Edo. We have started the process and are going to make it a culture.
“You can only come into the service on merit basis. We must position the civil service to be the best employer of labour. For us to be able to deliver services in Edo, we must change our mindsets; we have to change the way we do things.”
“We have to organize ourselves; we have to change our outlook to our work, and then ensure that everybody employed into the civil and public service is trained and given the tools to work. There will be no shortcut to capacity building; it has to be continuous training,” he added.
The governor continued: “In Edo today, the average age is 35 years and the average age of our civil service is 48 years, so you can see that there is no correlation between the service and the people you are to serve; we have to bring that alignment to place. Civil service cannot just be only for old people; it should also be attractive to young people.
“Rest assured that we will position ourselves for tomorrow; it therefore means that we are not going to be bound by any federal government circular; Edo is Edo.
“It’s only as long as those federal government structures can help us achieve what we want to achieve, that we will adopt them. It’s not in the constitution that we must adopt federal government structures. We will only implement circulars that will help strengthen our civil and public service in Edo.”
“So, we must now make government attractive in terms of the way they work, the manner they work and what they are paid. We want Edo State civil and public service to be an employer of choice,” the governor added.
In his opening remarks, the Head of Service, Anthony Okungbowa Esq., enjoined Edo workers to embrace the new programme and make their years in service count.
