By Stephen Adeleye.
The National body for former and serving Public Office Holders Association in Nigeria (POHAN), has urged public institutions to embrace innovation and transformation for effective service delivery.
This was contained in a statement issued from by the National President of POHAN, Chief Deola Eseyin, on Monday, in preparation to mark the World Public Service Day, celebrated annually on June 23.
According to Adeola, public institutions need to embrace innovation and transformation to deliver more effective, timely responsive services, and embody the principles of transparency, accountability and inclusion.
“The UN General Assembly, in its resolution 57/277 designated 23rd June of every year as Public Service Day.
“This day celebrates the value and virtue of Public Service to the community; highlights the contribution of public service in the development process; recognizes the work of public servants, and encourages young people to pursue careers in the public sector.
“Effective, inclusive and accountable public sector institutions are critical for the implementation of 2030 Agenda and the achievement of the SDGs.
“The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development calls for innovative transformation and puts forward values and principles such as ‘leaving no one behind’ collaboration, integration, partnership, and universality which need to be translated into action.
“Public institutions need to embrace innovation and transformation to deliver more effective, timely responsive services, and embody the principles of transparency, accountability and inclusion,” he said.
Adeola noted that POHAN being the parent umbrella body for public office holders association of Nigeria (former and serving), as part of her activities to commemorate this year’s UN Public Service Day on June 23.
According to him, the theme for this year’s UN Public Service Day is ‘Action Today, Impact Tomorrow: Innovating and Transforming Public Services and Institutions to Realize the Sustainable Development Goals’.
“The ZOOM meeting tagged #NigeriaDependsOnMe as against the initial proposed Parley, sadly due to COVID-19 pandemic, draws global leaders who will be speaking at the event.
“Among them are: Dr Clyde Rivers, Dr Leong Ying, Dr Victoria Michaels, all from the United States; Chief Executive of Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Mr Babatunde Irukera; and Executive Vice Chairman and GCEO of Verdant Zeal Nigeria, Dr Tunji Ologbodi.
“Others are; Dr Chris Imumolen, Dr Sunday Onalo, Mr Robert Schmidt, Mr Suleman Momoh, Ms Suzan Ade-Coker and host of others,” he said.
He stressed that the Zoom meeting was expected to provide a platform for participants to reflect on how to advance progress in realizing the SDG goals and more importantly, taking the learnings of Covid-19 to strengthen institutions and processes.
He added that participants would also have the opportunity to debate emerging issues and trends, discuss good practices, strategies and innovative approaches for effective service delivery.
“For us as a nation to achieve these set goals and objectives, all hands must be on deck,” Adeola said.
