Ambode charges Civil Servants to obtain PVCs

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode on Thursday charged civil servants in the state to obtain their Permanent Voters Card, PVCs, which is their power to cast their votes in 2019.

The governor, who spoke at a two-day training for civil servants in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, said obtaining PVCs would give them the power to elect people that would lead them in 2019.

He also charged them to educate their relations and friends on the need to obtain the PVCs in readiness to vote for continuity in next year’s general election in the state.

The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr. Benson Oke said “go and collect your PVCs to vote in Lagos State. Educate your family members to collect their PVCs, it is your power.”

Ambode, however, said his administration had been engaging in massive infrastructure drive in the state in order to make life better for the people.

The governor stated that more than ever before, governments  all over the world had increasingly come under serious public scrutiny and fiscal pressure to deliver better outcomes to citizens and to do so more efficiently.

“As is evident, Nigeria has not been spared from this in recent times. On the one hand, the dynamism presented by the impact of the interaction of economics, technological and other superintending elements in these scenarios have no doubt made governments’ public service delivery duties onerous.

“On the other hand, however, it has also opened up opportunities for the exploration of out-of-the-box strategies that governments can adopt if found to better the lot of their citizens,” he said.

Ambode further said to succeed, public-sector organizations must find a way to align their growth strategy—providing new and better services at limited cost—with a regard for the interests of their workers.

“Although lean programmes may cut the number of public-sector jobs over time, the goal is to make the remaining ones more rewarding. Incentives come from the prospect of more meaningful work, potentially with room for greater autonomy or a chance to develop new skills.

“I will urge all participants in this training to actively participate in the discussions and to contribute meaningfully to realizing the objectives of this training. It is in our corporate interest to do so. This is because, if the Lagos State Civil Service is able to perfect the art of lean management and operations, the service will become able to eliminate the so-called “Three Sources of Loss,” which are waste, variability, and inflexibility,” he said.

The governor pointed out that a lean operational system would also ensure that the Lagos State Civil Service created and maintained the beneficial ability to improve itself constantly by bringing problems to the surface and resolving them, adding that in this area, the public sector often found itself in a weaker starting position when compared to private sector entities, with gaps in skills and entrenched mind-sets.