Head of the Nigeria Civil Service, Mr. Danladi I. Kifasi has revealed how President Muhammadu Buhari has managed to continued to rule Nigeria for more than three months now without ministers but leaned heavily on civil service.
“In the absence of Ministers,” Kifasi said today at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, “Mr President has helped to restore the confidence of the civil service by leaning on that institution for support in piloting the affairs of the nation.
“Mr. President, I wish to, on behalf of the Public Service of Nigeria, pledge our unalloyed loyalty and commitment to your government in its determination to bring about positive and sustainable change in the affairs of our dear country.”
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation spoke at the formal launching of the Public Service Capacity Building Programme
Kifasi said that the Programmes have been designed to change positively the quality of the Public Service in Nigeria which he said, is a demonstration of the present Administration’s determination to bequeath to the Nation a more virile, committed and service-driven Public Service.
He recalled that in his Inaugural Speech as Head of the Civil Service of the Federation on 18th August 2014, he has set out a number of strategic priorities that he intended to focus on during his tenure.
They included, he said, elimination of corruption through enhancement of transparency in the conduct of Government business, improving the operation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and putting in place, a robust Performance Management System in the public service.
It also included strengthening Leadership and Succession Planning, enhancing the capacity of civil servants to discharge their core functions, including changing the curriculum, training approach and critical thinking capacity of Civil Servants and restoring discipline, entrenching a new work culture and restoring professionalism.
“In the 12 months since my inauguration, we have made substantial progress on all these strategic priorities. We have taken steps to activate the dormant Human Resources modules in IPPIS, enforce full compliance with the contract and ensure value for money for government by plugging loopholes for corruption.
“We have worked with the National Planning Commission, the Federal Civil Service Commission and the Bureau of Public Service Reforms to develop a new, robust, Performance Management System that we will shortly be piloting. We have taken steps to reduce the cost of governance and restore discipline by restricting foreign travel and promoting local training.
“We have also concluded plans to reintroduce Manpower Budget Defence, linked to approved Manning Levels, to reduce arbitrariness in recruitment and ensure prudence in the use of personnel budgets.”
Kifasi stressed that the launching of the programme was in furtherance of the vision to reposition the Public Service by focusing on building its capacity and enhancing leadership at all levels.
“It is in fulfillment of this vision, that my Office developed two distinctive and strategic Capacity Building Programmes, the Structured Mandatory Assessment-Based Training Programme (SMAT-P) and the Leadership Enhancement And Development Programme (LEAD-P). “The overall objective of the Capacity Building Programmes is to address the twin challenges of capacity and leadership deficit in the Public Service today.
“While LEAD-P is a completely new innovation, SMAT-P builds on previous capacity building programmes developed by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. The point of departure of SMAT-P from previous programmes is that it is structured, mandatory and assessment-based. It has been strategically packaged to be a continuous, coherent, coordinated and sustainable approach for effective capacity building for Public Servants, based on local and international best practice. It emphasizes the areas of competencies and service delivery capability critical for the delivery of government policies and programmes.
“Of the many challenges the Public Service faces, effective leadership has rightly been identified as one of the most critical. If addressed along with other crucial issues, effective leadership would help to re-invigorate the Service on the path to high performance. The Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme is one of the elements of the new Leadership Development Framework for the Federal Civil Service. LEAD-P will help to identify potential leaders at the various levels in the service, nurture developing leaders and enhance the capacity and capability of existing leaders. Its main objective is to build a crop of trustworthy, dependable and competent leaders at all levels who will deliver results in critical positions and lead the Service to achieve its goals. “The LEAD-P Curriculum, which has been developed to global standards, is suitable for both the Public Service and the Private Sector.”
The Head of Civil Service said that the decision to restrict foreign training and promote home-grown capacity development is what has made SMAT-P and LAED-P possible, adding that the programmes are funded primarily from the training budgets of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies and delivered mainly by Nigerian Management Development Institutes. “This means that resources that could have been lost to foreign training institutions have been used to develop and strengthen Nigerian training institutions. A number of Ministries, Departments and Agencies have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to capacity development by investing in their staff to attend this inaugural phase of SMAT-P.
“They are the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the Ecological Fund Office of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Federal Ministry of Health, Federal Ministry of Information and the Bureau of Public Service Reforms. I enjoin other MDAs to emulate these forward-looking MDAs by investing in building the capacity of their own staff.”
Kifasi said that in the development of SMAT-P and LEAD-P, his office was conscious of the fact that the Federal Civil Service of Nigeria, like many Civil Services around the world, is the entity that implements the policies and programmes of the Federal Government.
He noted that the pace and magnitude of growth and development of the country are, to a large extent, dependent on the capacity of the Public Service, saying that while the Public Service has served the country creditably, “we must admit that in recent times, it has come under public scrutiny for failing to meet public expectations, especially with regards to service delivery. It is the quest for excellent public service delivery that has spurred us to develop a strategic approach to building the capacity of the Public Servants through training and retraining programmes designed to enhance competence and professionalism.
“Consequently, the public launch of the Capacity Building Programmes is happening at an auspicious time when the Federal Government of Nigeria, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, is determined to reform the Public Service to make it more dynamic, transparent, accountable, effective and efficient in implementing Government policies and programmes. “The urgency and determination with which the Government desires to bring about positive change in the Public Service, should galvanize every Public Servant to demonstrate unparalleled commitment to their duties.” [myad]
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