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EMBRACE CITIZENS FRIENDLY APPROACH”, LAGOS WORKERS TOLD

Lagos State Government has advised its workforce to strive towards increasing the confidence already reposed in the present administration in the State by embracing ‘citizens-friendly’ approach when interacting with the members of the public.

The Commissioner for Establishment, Trainings and Pensions, Dr. Akintola Benson-Oke who gave the advice recently at the opening session of a training programme tagged: “Emerging Global Best Practices in Governance” also warned government officials to be wary of the fact that government performance is not only measured by the quality and quantity of implemented projects but also and more importantly by the impression created by workforce when dealing with the public.

Dr. Akintola Benson-Oke maintained that the delivery of excellent services to citizens should be seen as the fundamental objective of any democratically-elected government, adding that Lagos residents have become sophisticated and exposed to the standards of governance in other climes to the extent that their expectations have been conditioned to demand and insist on compliance with global best practices at all levels of governance.

“As earlier mentioned, the overriding observation today is that citizens expect the government to comply with global best practices in democratic governance. As we all know, meeting these expectations is the central challenge for governments in the developing world. Lagos State will henceforth be benchmarked with developed cities in the world and not with any State in the country” the Commissioner added.

He also identified transparency in governance as a very important feature of government, adding that providing citizens with information regarding government budgets can also make members of the public feel the inclusiveness of government and as such cultivate citizens’ buy-in.

He charged the workers to improve government efficiency by reducing the rate at which service seekers throng in and out government offices through the deployment of necessary mechanisms and applications such that citizens satisfaction would be greatly improved upon.

Earlier, the Director of Training in the Ministry, Mr. Ayodeji Aruna said that the essence of the training was to change the orientation of the entire workforce from the past operational mode of informing members of the public to collaborating with the citizenry.

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