Hot gist! Nigeria will be in deeper trouble if we don’t cut waste, Obaseki warns

Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, has raised the alarm over high rate of wastage in government, especially at the federal level, warning that the country will be in deeper trouble unless it takes deliberate steps to curb the trend.

This came as the governor reeled out gains of his administration’s e-governance system, calling for digitalisation of processes across all levels of government to ensure transparency and reduce cost.

Obaseki spoke as a panelist on ‘Reinventing Government: Digitalisation of Public Institutions’, at the 29th Nigerian Economic Summit, in Abuja.

He said: “We need to reinvent governance. You can’t reinvent government unless you digitalise and open up your systems. We have no option. We have to be efficient.

“We have to be efficient to support production, especially at the federal government level. The waste is too much, and unless we change, we will be in trouble. In fact, we are already in trouble, and if we don’t change, we will be in deeper trouble.”

Obaseki, while sharing his Edo State e-governance experience, said digitalisation of government requires political will and commitment of leaders because of resistance from civil servants.

He said sometimes, even when the political leader has a well thought-out and noble policy, getting civil servants to implement the same is a challenge. And in his case, he had to insist.

The governor said until the digitalisation exercise in Edo State, civil servants, public office holders, and the executive operated in silos. He, however, noted that the story has changed.

The Obaseki-led state government, over the past seven years, pursued reforms to digitalise work processes in the civil and public service, transiting service delivery from an archaic, analog, and strenuous mode to a more efficient method.

The Laurels International Magazine