By Ladi Patrick In an effort to ensure gender balance in the Federal Civil Service, the Head of Service of the Federation, Bukar Goni Aji, has called on all permanent secretaries to create programmes and policies that would improve the lives of women in the country.
The Head of Service gave the charge on Thursday when the led a team of federal permanent secretaries on a Peer Review meeting to the Ministry of Women Affairs in Abuja.
Goni-Aji, said it is important for all permanent secretaries to align themselves with the activities of their ministries, departments and agencies to make the civil service a world class institution.
He noted that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) has been restructured to focus on training and welfare to improve the lives of all civil servants.
His words, “It has been observed that the OHCSF was overloaded with too many departments, this has not really helped in training and career management.
“We are now restructured to a more compactable size to help the civil service of its succession plan”.
Responding, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Zainab Maina, commended the Head of Service for his dynamic leadership, noting that the civil servants are impressed with the style of the peer review which the OHCSF created.
Maina observed that, “With the introduction of peer review in the civil service, the usual complains that normally preside the head of service during the weekly federal executive council meeting has drastically reduce.
“There are no more complains that I cannot work with this permanent secretary. So, “This is highly commendable and by extension it will improve the poor civil service”.
The minister also conferred on the Head of Service of Federation, the Senior Gender Advocate award for his contribution toward gender balance in the country.
Earlier, the permanent secretary in the ministry, Dr Habiba Lawal welcomed the team; commending governments’ policy of establishing gender units in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) was laudable.
She said it was the ministries’ vision to build a society which guarantees equal access to social and economic opportunities, irrespective of gender, class or social status.
