Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has said that people who shower encomium on him for his achievements in Lagos in the last eight years should equally shower praise on civil servants in the state.
Fashola, whose tenure will end on May 29, 2015, said this at a send-off themed, ‘Time Out with BRF…Indelible Footprints’.
The event was organised by the Body of Permanent Secretaries in the governor’s honour in Alausa, Ikeja, a statement said on Sunday.
Fashola pointed out that when people praised him for being an exemplary achiever, he always felt awkward.
“This is because whatever I achieved was because of team work. Whatever we celebrate today, we earned it together. I share the responsibility for all that we did well”, he said.
The governor further praised his party, the All Progressives Congress, for providing the template through which dividends of democracy were provided for the people.
He said, “We worked with the manifesto of the party; we infused it in our civil service. If there is one thing that I am happy for, it is the fact that our party ─ from AD to AC, ACN and APC ─ has demonstrated that in this part of the world that government can work and government can change lives”.
Fashola said he was happy with the reorientation of Lagos civil servants, who had continued to demonstrate that they were true professionals.
“The competition is getting stiffer; but we have set the standards and the competition can only come as close as we allow them. We must continue to push the frontiers of service. Every other state wants to be like Lagos because we have set the pace”, he added.
In her speech, entitled ‘BRF – Indelible Footprints: The Civil Service Perspective’, the Lagos State Head of Service, Mrs. Folashade Jaji, observed that Fashola turned around the civil service.
She said, “Your style of leadership in every sphere of governance in Lagos, especially from the painstaking commitment to quality service delivery and the application of merit in the appointment of your team members, has become a reference point in sustainable leadership for other public office holders”.