By Aaron Ossai and Disun Amosun
Nigerian youths aspiring for a career in the Public Service must from the onset resolve to change the narrative of the ills of inefficiency and administrative bottleneck that currently characterized the Service, if they are to effectively play their role as the engine room to drive government programmes.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu threw the challenge yesterday when he received in audience, 80 representatives of such youths drawn from across the nation, on a visit to his office.
The courtesy call, initiated by a Youth Leadership Trainers group: The Public Service Boot Camp (TPSBC) afforded the youths the opportunity to get a first hand experience in interacting with representatives of the people and top public servants in the Bureaucracy of the Legislature.
Hon Kalu was categorical in blaming the Public Service for most of the woes bettiding the successful execution of government programmes, as most see their offices as avenue to serve their personal rather than national interest and providing service to the people.
He charged the crop of visiting youths, whom he described as the next generation of future leaders to imbibe the values of honour, integrity, and hard work to be able to play their part when the time comes.
“Serving the public is a thankless task, all the same public servants must remain focused and go about their job dellingently so as to contribute to bringing government policies and programmes to fruition. You should as aspiring Public Servants use your young mind to appraise happenings in the public service of nigeria today and descerne the type of service and atmosphere you want to operate in.
“The most powerful president or minister can through intrigues and self interest can easily be misled by public servants, resulting in the derailment of policies and programmes. I urge you to realise the difference in being a public servant and being a servant of the public and urged them to choose accordingly”, he said.
The Deputy Speaker noted that over the years, the Nigerian Public Service Index, among the UN Public Service Index had remained under-par, noting that in this era of digitalization, the ever agile Nigerian youths should apply their minds towards achieving accurate data capturing to drive efficiency and planning on the public service.
He assured the youths that despite the challenges facing the Public Service, he remained convinced in the determination and ability of the youths to come in and change the narratives, he then promised to be a patron of the TPSBC.
