LASG charges public servants to be innovative

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has challenged the 100 public servants who graduated from the Public Service Accelerator Programme to return to their ministries and change how government works, saying the value of the training will be measured by improvements they deliver to citizens.

Sanwo-Olu gave the charge on Wednesday at the graduation ceremony of the second cohort of the programme, organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Establishments and Training.

Rather than treating the completion of the programme as an end in itself, the governor said the participants had acquired a responsibility to apply what they learnt to improve processes, solve problems and make public institutions more responsive.

Sanwo-Olu said, “The greatest thing to do is service. It is not only about being better than your colleagues, but about improving the process and developing the institution for the people.”

He said the state had continued to invest in workforce development because the quality of its public institutions depended substantially on the capacity of the people running them.

Sanwo-Olu, who recalled his early years as a commissioner more than two decades ago, said he had witnessed previous efforts to reposition the Lagos public service through capacity development and improved performance.

He said sustained investment in public servants could help institutions become more effective and responsive to the needs of citizens.

The governor urged the graduates to return to their ministries, departments and agencies with a renewed commitment to challenging inefficient processes and finding better ways of delivering public services.

He also tasked them with embracing technology, innovation and problem-solving, stressing that the ultimate measure of the programme should be the changes introduced in their workplaces.

The programme was designed to build what the governor described as a critical mass of skilled, motivated and innovative public officers capable of contributing to the transformation of the Lagos State Public Service.

The emphasis on workplace results was reinforced by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Regional Development Programmes, Dr Mariam Masha, who called on public servants to move beyond established routines and develop solutions to problems confronting government.

Representing the Office of the Vice President, Masha said the Solve for Service Challenge had brought 10 teams together to work on real service-delivery problems over six weeks, with the teams developing evidence-based solutions under the guidance of mentors and independent judges.

She urged public servants to continually question existing processes and focus on translating government policies into measurable outcomes for citizens.

Also speaking, the Commissioner for Establishments and Training, Afolabi Ayantayo, said the programme reflected the state government’s effort to develop a new generation of public servants capable of responding to emerging challenges.

Ayantayo said the participants had been exposed to leadership training, broader knowledge and practical approaches to addressing challenges within the public service.