Resist Being Used As Tools Against The Civil Service.......HoSF Advice The Media

..... Says Their Service, An Opportunity To Safeguard, Stabilize And Sustain Government Programmes and projects Designed For Development Of The Country.

The Head of Service of the Federation, Dr Folashade Yemi Esan has commended the Media over their unwavering support  for the office of the Head of Service of the Federation in achieving it's mandates.

Dr Folashade Esan made the commendation during a media 0arley with Chief Executives and Editors-in-Chief as part of activities marking the 2024 Civil Service Week celebration.

The HoSF who advised the media not to allow themselves to be used as tools by enemies of the government or the Nation, said the members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm should see their service as an opportunity to safeguard, stabilise and sustain government programmes, activities and projects designed to bring about development, as well as secure the wellbeing of Nigerians. 

Dr. Yemi-Esan, thanked the executives for honouring her invitation meant to interact and have a robust discussion with her and the Transformative Federal Permanent Secretaries, in order to move the Service and by extension the nation forward. 

Reiterating the continental theme for this Year’s Civil Service Week, “Educate an African Fit for the 21st Century: Building Resilient Education Systems for Increased Access to Inclusive, Lifelong, Quality and Relevant Learning in Africa,” she hinted that the Service has undergone several reforms, which are repositioning it for optimum performance. 

"These reforms have proactively recognised and avoided the pitfalls of the previous ones, hence the successes being witnessed, she added.

The HoSF spoke on the successes recorded with the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021-2025 (FCSSIP25), which was developed following extensive stakeholder engagements, saying it was approved by the Federal Executive Council on December 15, 2021, FCSSIP25 and officially launched in June, 2022. 

According to Dr Yemi-Esan, the leadership of the nigerian workforce has driven the plan towards evolving a crop of skilled, motivated, disciplined, innovative, and performance and merit-based civil servants. 

"This was possible with a robust change management and the inculcation of a culture of Accountability, Meritocracy, Professionalism, Loyalty and Efficiency (AMPLE), she emphasised.

Highlighting the six (6) Pillars of the FCSSIP25: Capability Building and Talent Management, Performance Management System, Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) – Human Resource, Innovation, Digitalisation of Content Services and Enhancing Value Proposition for Civil Servants - Staff Welfare, the HoSF revealed that they have been aligned to drive the implementation of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu–led administration’s eight priority programmes in the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda.’

She reeled out the successes recorded by the Office, during her stewardship, in the implementation of FCSSIP25 such as; coordination of all training programmes of MDAs, where progress report on those approved are properly structured and piloted by the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN).

"Over 16,000 officers have been trained at the core ministry level. On Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme (LEAD-P), the Structured Mandatory Assessment-Based Training Programme (SMAT-P) and Public Leaders Programme; the Service has been able to groom and deploy to various MDAs, a crop of about 224 LEAD-P Officers out of 500 future leaders expected by 2025; 8,905 

"Civil Servants have also been trained under the Structured Mandatory Assessment-Based Training Programme (SMAT-P), which consists of Basic, Intermediate and Advanced modules; another 2,676 have been trained under the blended e-learning initiative, in collaboration with the private sector on the AIG Public Leaders Programme, which was facilitated by the Blavatnik School of Government (BSG), University of Oxford, United Kingdom. 

"Others include the institutionalisation and implementation of a Performance Management System (PMS) in the Service; correction of the existing anomalies in the management of HR Records; promotion of service innovation; digitalisation of content services; and focus on the welfare of civil servants. The HoSF enumerated

Dr Esan eulogised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for demonstrating both the will and passion for improving the welfare of the workforce through the N35,000 provisional wage award for all treasury-paid federal government workers for six months and ongoing efforts to review the National Minimum Wage. 

Speaking further, she said that, "towards enhancing the value proposition of civil servants, the Office had instituted a Reward and Recognition Scheme (R&RS), Service wide; an Endowment Fund of N500,000 for each recipient of the Presidential Public Service Merit Award for best performing civil servant from the MDAs facilitated by a private sector partner - the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation; Federal Public Service Entrepreneurship Programme; Provision of Group Life Assurance (GLA) cover for federal government employees; provision of affordable housing and loans, at single-digit interest rate, through the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) programme and the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board, respectively. A major reference point is the FISH Housing Estate in Gwagwalada, which has been completed, allocated and  commissioned, in record time. 

“We are also working towards the delivery of more housing units,” Dr. Yemi-Esan said. 

"Other staff welfare milestones include the establishment of an Employee Wellness Centre, where health seminars, physical and mental health counselling and checkups are conducted; review of the Public Service Rules (PSRs) and the launch of the revised PSRs; improvement on work environment and infrastructure development through the procurement and installation of workstations in the various departments to enhance staff  productivity; deployment of a 500-kilowatt Solar Hybrid System for alternative electric power; partnership with Galaxy Backbone Ltd for the upgrading of the Local Area Network (LAN) in Ministries and the enforcement of the use of official email addresses for official communication, in line with global best practices." She added

The Permanent Secretary, Service Policies and Strategies Office, OHCSF, Dr. Deborah Odoh in her welcome address appreciated the media for their continued collaboration and invited them to use the opportunity of the meeting to suggest ways to better the Service, in the overall interest of the nation.

During the interactive session, the media top chiefs commended the HoSF on some visibly remarkable and tremendous transformations witnessed in the attitude of civil servants as opposed to the past years. They pledged to continue doing their best for the interest of the Service.

Questions were entertained on salary harmonisation, cost saved by disengaging ghost-workers, corruption and its management in the Civil Service, recruitment and IPPIS enrolment. 

Comments and commendations were mostly centred on culture change, digitalisation, as well as the speedy rate of infrastructural upgrade during the tenure of Dr. Yemi-Esan, CFR.

The Director, Communications, Mal. Mohammed Ahmed Abdullahi thanked the members of the press for the cooperation the Office has been receiving from them and also solicited for their continued unbiased reportage and goodwill.

Present at the occasion were Transformative Permanent Secretaries from various Ministries and Extra-Ministerial Departments, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein and numerous Directors.