Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOSCF), Alhaji Isa Sali, last Thursday urged civil servants to adopt the right attitude to work in order to restore the lost glory of the service.

Sali, represented by  Permanent Secretary Manpower Development in the office of the HOCSF, Mrs Nkechi Ejele,  said this at the commencement of a specialised mandatory training for officers on GL 08 – GL 16 in the federal civil service.

He said in addition to improving the competence and capacity of civil servants, “we will also use this opportunity to ensure that we address our attitude as public servants.

“Without this, the knowledge received cannot be very meaningful; our aim is that the past glory of the service is restored as we produce civil servants who are both found worthy in character and learning to drive the machinery of government in our country,he said.

Sali said this would make the officers to be more responsive to the current and future challenges of governance.

According to the head of service, the training programme is aimed at improving the service delivery capacity of civil servants.

He said the training would “dovetail” into the Federal Government programme of repositioning the civil service for the task of nation building.

Sali said the training programme was initiated in 2009 by his predecessor, adding that this was 10th batch in the series.

“This 10th batch comprises 750 officers for mandatory training and 650 officers for Information Communication Technology (ICT) training.

“The objective of the training is to build and strengthen the ability of officers to efficiently and effectively deliver service and contribute significantly to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),’’ he added.

Sali urged the participants to take the training seriously and ensure that they passed the assessment test by giving the training the attention it deserved.

Director-General, Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), Mr Ajibade Peters, said in the last one and half decades, the public service had been undergoing series of reforms.

Peters said these reforms were being pursued with the aim of making the service more efficient, effective, responsive, modern, proactive, development-focused and results-oriented.

He said the decision of the government to deploy enormous resources to capacity building under the MDGs was certainly one of the most appropriate and veritable interventions undertaken to give the public service a new lease of life and orientation.

Reports said that the training is jointly organised by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs.