Charges Edo civil servants to embrace E-Government policy

GOVERNOR Godwin Obaseki of Edo state yesterday lamented that the outbreak of the civil war disrupted the well-organized civil services system put in place by the British, charging civil servants in the state to key into the Integrated Financial Information System which will guarantee Electronic governance in all Ministries in the state.

Obaseki who commended his predecessor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, whom he described as a courageous lion, for being the first governor to introduce the use of technology called the “oracle software in the payment system in the civil service”, said his administration has provided one thousand computers and will provide internet facilities in all the offices so that every government dealings will be online.

Governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki

He spoke while addressing Permanent Secretaries and Directors in the state civil service yesterday.

According to him, “What we are doing is to automate the process, we inherited the British administration system which was used to govern the entire world. It was that system that helped us built the economic, social and political foundation of this country. Nigeria worked because the civil service worked. The civil service worked because they are processes and system that made it worked.

“What happened is that we had a civil war and most of those processes were disrupted. So when we say things are not working today is because the processes that we inherited in terms of how we manage the bureaucracy was disrupted. And it has been a challenge trying to bring back those processes.

“It is important to know that the money we are spending is tax payers money and we are only privileged to managed it so we must be prudent about it. As a government we want to make the job of the servants easy that is why we want to run E-Government. We must look for money next week and rebuild Training Center, where they will be mandatory training and voluntary training for civil servants.

“If you close you don’t want to go home early you go there and they teach you. To make sure we run an E-Government, we just acquired a thousand computers, by the grace of God we are going to complete bloc C this year, fence around the secretariat from the Ministry of Works Sapele Road to the High Court junction. We will make sure we have wireless internets in all our offices. By the grace of God by the time our power project is completed we will have 24 hours electricity in our offices.

“I come from a civil service family and I worked as a clerical officer at the age of 16, so I have idea of how the civil service works and I know that no government, no institution can progress without the civil service. But on your part understand that you cannot continue with the attitude of the past. To whom so much is given so much is expected. We want to run our government like an electronically based government. Before the end of my tenure we will no longer use hard files, so that all actions will be on line” he stated.