By Babatunde Ayedoju

Ondo State Local Government Administrative Officers have been charged to prioritise diligence, creativity and capacity building in order to achieve effective and efficient service delivery.

The charge was made by various speakers at the flag off of a two-day capacity building for executive officers converted to administrative officers cadre held in Akure.

Addressing the gathering, Chairman of Ondo State Local Government Service Commission, Mr Femi Idris, commended the state Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, for creating employment opportunities for citizens and injecting highly qualified personnel into all critical areas of the service.

While describing the administrative cadre as the engine room of the service, Mr Idris said that the survival of the local government service largely depends on a virile and responsive workforce.

He said, “Your position as administrative officers is a unique one saddled with enormous responsibilities. The survival and growth of the system should be of paramount interest to everyone of us in our quest to have a system of our dream that we can be proud of.”

He also admonished them to embrace a high standard of integrity, honesty, fairness and impartiality, adding that they must always be prepared to respond to changes.

Also speaking at the event, Permanent Secretary of the Commission, Dr Bayo Ilawole, while appreciating the state Governor for emplacing a robust administrative system in the state, encouraged the participants to seize the opportunity to network, collaborate and broaden their horizons to become effective agents of positive change within the local government system.

Earlier, Permanent Secretary of Ondo State Civil Service Commission, Mr Segun Odusanya, while delivering the first lecture, stressed the need for good communication skills, strong emotional intelligence and team work.

His words, “Strong emotional intelligence is essential to make team work easy. It is a team work that makes the team to work. You are not a doctor, nurse, engineer or a quantity surveyor, but your work is to coordinate all of those professionals. So you need to be able to work as a team.”

Speaking with The Hope, one of the newly converted administrative officers, Fagbayibo Seinde, thanked the state government for the event which he described as long awaited.

He expressed hope that having been equipped through the various lectures, the participants would be more effective in their work henceforth.

Another participant, Thomas Sunmisola, while also thanking the government advised her fellow local government administrative officers to work harder towards making the service better than before and be willing to learn.