By Emmanuel Ovuakporie
Director-General of  Nigeria Institute of  Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Professor Danfulani Ahmed, has observed that the 1976 purge of the civil service is still haunting public servants in the country.

Prof. Ahmed made the observation in a lecture in commemoration of the Public Service Day, entitled:Fostering Partnerships and Collaborations for Sustainable Development and Improved Service Delivery in Africa.

The DG, who was represented by the acting director of National Institute, Kuru, Mr James Opadiran, said: “Public servants had to take their own destiny in their hands after the purge as there was no longer security of tenure in the civil service.”

He, however, highlighted the following as the high points of the lecture: the significance of sustainable development and its interlinkage  with good governance; the challenges of the 21st century and implication for Africa.

Others include, the centrality enhanced/improved service delivery; the imperative of strategic partnership and collaboration; the role of strategic/transformational leadership in change management and the lessons of experience from global best practices etc.

According to him, the ultimate goal of every society is development, irrespective of the different developmental paths adopted.

On the challenges of the 21st Century in Africa, the DG stated that “today’s business environment is characterised by change – a sort of  future shock unlike the previous centuries.

This is information age where globalisation and ICT  are the norm and in a global village with fast globalisation train, consolidation through mergers and acquisition as well as retreat of government and deregulation, Nigerian organisations and indeed, the Nigerian nation cannot be island unto themselves.

Chairman of the event, Ambassador  Ahmed Al- Gazali, however, explained that “if you have a bad electoral body it will give you bad results and if you have a bad census body it will give you bad census figures  what we crave for is excellence.”

Earlier, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation,  Mr. Steve Orosanye, in his welcome remarks had said since the 1994 Tangiers Declaration which had set aside June 23 of every year to celebrate Africa Public Service Nigeria has joined other African countries annually to mark the Day.