Abuja- The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have called on political parties and their candidates to improve public administration in Nigeria.
The NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar, made the call at a debate organised by NLC and CSOs on Friday in Abuja for political parties.
Omar, who was represented by Mr Isa Aremu, the NLC Deputy President, said the debate was organised to enable political parties and their candidates to address issues of public administration.
He said “we believe that the reform of the public administration in Nigeria is imperative because it is the systems and processes through which the machinery of government operates.
“Meanwhile, there are several challenges facing Nigerians, especially in terms of provision of health services, education, transport, waste disposal, security, regulation and enforcement of legal duties, among others.
“But a good public administrator will help to put in place systems and processes that will help to deliver services to citizens and that is by addressing specific issues affecting the system.’’
Omar said Nigeria must have capable government that would increase the use of transparency and accountability mechanism to pursue delivery of service targets.
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He said if service delivery solutions were implemented, accountability mechanism used, governments would be able to improve performance in some areas of public administration and service delivery.
“We hope that the political parties will today make a commitment and reach an agreement to reform public administration in Nigeria,’’ he stressed.
Dr Otive Ibuzor, the Executive Director, Centre for African Centre for Leadership, said it was no longer news that there was dysfunction in public administration in Nigeria.
Ibuzor said “there are several issues that require initiation of reforms and political parties and candidates seeking for office in the general elections must address them.
“These issues include cost of governance, effective budgeting, public finance management, civil service reform, planning, policy, sectoral issues, constituency projects and corruption.’’
He then urged the political parties and candidates to ensure that the issues brought before at the debate were well addressed.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that three political parties were present at the debate, namely the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress, (APC) and Alliance for Democracy.
The PDP was represented by Dr Katch Onanuju, while the APC was represented by Mr Bolaji Abdullhi and Mr Rafiu Salau, the presidential candidate of AD represented his party.
The three parties also signed an affirmation to improve the quality of public administration for Nigerians when voted into power. (NAN)
