The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, has called on Nigerian civil servants to always learn to acquire knowledge and skills so that they can live up to Nigerians’ expectations in terms of service delivery.
Yemi-Esan stated this yesterday in Abuja while speaking with journalists after an Interdenominational Church Thanksgiving Service for the 2024 Civil Service Week at the EXOUSIA Church of God.
The head of Civil Service said that civil servants cannot stop training themselves, because knowledge is key for them to ascend to positions God has for them and also for them to live up to the expectations of the Nigerian citizens.
“We must tool ourselves with the requisite skills and we can only do this by continuous training and learning,” she said.
While speaking on the thanksgiving service, she said, “We have come to thank God for His presence with us in the civil service and especially for the successful celebration of the civil service week. We came to cap it up with thanksgiving to God.”
Also, the senior pastor of the church, Kunle Sholeye, admonished civil servants that the only way to acquire skills is for them to keep on learning and that fasting and prayers cannot give them the required skills to succeed after retirement.
“There is no alternative for skills, even prayer or fasting, because skills are required to execute human endeavour and as a people and civil servants, or whatever field we find ourselves, we must daily seek out to gain more understanding.
“The scriptures said in Proverbs 4, that in all your getting, get wisdom and with it, get understanding, knowing that it is the number one thing to get. The Bible says that it is the principal thing. So, if you do not have the principal thing, that means there is nothing else that you can have, because that is the foundation of all.
“So, we are encouraged to be skilful, to develop skills that can bring positive development to our nation, both from the young to the old, everybody must go back to learning. We must give our heart to learning skills, skills in leadership, management and accountability.
“The need for you to understand that the basis of transparency, so that when you are done with your office as a public office holder, you can walk tall in the street, not that you will bow your head in shame or run out or the country,” he said.
He said that if they acquired skills and knowledge, they could live and become a respected elder statesman or woman that people can consult and that people can draw from their well of knowledge.
