Being the Text of a Speech Presented by Governor Alex C. Otti, OFR, at the flag off of the Umuahia Dedicated Internet Access/Wide Area Network Project on Friday, March 21, 2025 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Secretariat Complex, Ogurube Layout, Umuahia
Protocols,
1. Technology is at the centre of human civilisation, providing mankind with the vehicle for centuries of progress and advancement across multiple fields of interest. On the strength of continuing technological breakthroughs, man has conquered and now own every inch of space on earth, outmanoeuvred the birds of the sky and made the body of waters a safe path for travel, trade and productive adventures. Our experiences at home, in our workplaces and everywhere else have been greatly enriched by the wonders of technology leading to higher standards of living for the present generation and the promise of a brighter future for the next.
2. Resistance to or rejection of technology often emanate from a place of ignorance or the plain refusal to appreciate that all forms of technology is an expression of the wisdom that the Creator has generously endowed man with. Refusing to embrace technology ultimately means accepting to remain stagnant and ultimately retrogress. In my long leadership career, I have come to learn that the difference between resilient and impact-making institutions and the ones that fall by the wayside lies largely in the technological orientation at the foundation of the establishments.
3. The institution of the civil service is constitutionally and conventionally charged with the responsibility of supporting the government of the day in the development and delivery of public sector policies and programmes. The civil service has been structured to operate in a manner that makes it unencumbered by political bias or social pressure but dedicated wholly to functions and roles that impact the day-to-day experience of the average member of the community. The success or failure of any government and its policies rest squarely with the efficiency or lack thereof in the civil service. This age-old truth explains how critical the men and women who serve in the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are to the attainment of the governance objectives of any Administration.
4. Unfortunately, the civil service establishment across the globe has a long history of systemic inefficiency leading to poor accountability and difficulty in measuring outcomes. Like you find in several other places, the institution of the civil service in Abia State has also been entangled with the challenge of bureaucratic red tape, complex administrative processes, truancy, corruption and bloated overhead. With these difficulties existing across multiple public offices, the impact of government policies and programmes are often reduced or simply made ineffective, the taxpayers are cheated and the society is unfortunately made to carry the heavy burden of an inefficient and dysfunctional civil service.
5. This afternoon, we have gathered to mark the beginning of a new era where technology shall be deployed as the functional vehicle to drive the root and branch transformation of the civil service in the State. On this note distinguished ladies and gentlemen, let me formally welcome you to the official flag off of the Umuahia Dedicated Internet Access/Wide Area Network Project which promises to re-engineer efficiency and flexibility in operations and interactions within and amongst institutions, enhance policy execution and engender a culture of outcome-oriented competition amongst civil servants.
6. This project, the first phase of a carefully coordinated programme of digital support infrastructure layout and integration, will involve the acquisition and distribution of thousands of high-performance digital tools and devices across ministries, departments and agencies of government, laying of fibre-optic cables within the precincts of State-owned public institutions and the installation of other critical hardware infrastructure to support digital governance through high speed data transmission and round-the-clock multi-network exchanges.
7. Our goal is to improve governance deliverables by empowering civil servants to do their jobs in a result-oriented manner. This is a central part of the administration’s agenda to bring about holistic improvement on all frontiers of our everyday experiences as Ndi Abia. Today’s event marks the fulfilment of our promise to rebuild the civil service architecture through measurable improvements in the competences of the workforce at the lower and upper rungs of the ladder. The target is to build a new civil service community that responds to dynamic realities of the New Abia.
8. The phased migration of our civil service workstations and platforms to the digital space to make for round-the-clock borderless operations will further open up the State to the global community, enable timely responses to inquiries and create multi-channel interfaces to answer to the service needs of our development partners at the earliest possible time. We are determined to lean on the strength of new and emerging technology platforms to set higher standards of service delivery.
9. With the Umuahia Dedicated Internet Access/Wide Area Network Project becoming operational, we shall see greater speed in communication amongst personnel working within and across MDAs through emails, instant messaging and Voice over Internet Protocol. This will effectively lead us into the age of seamless collaboration, birthing a new service-wide culture of learning, sharing and growth.
10. The long term dividends of the new system will manifest in the areas of reduced outlays on paper and printer consumables and related overhead costs that have practically become a drain on government revenue. The direct and medium term gains will include the streamlining of the bureaucratic structure of the civil service, faster turnaround time, effective document archiving and tracking, objective, data-driven performance management processes and the gradual elimination of the structures that impede personnel and institutional productivity.
11. We appreciate that the efficiency of any system is largely dependent on the competences and motivation of the individuals driving the deployment framework. In the light of this, we shall not just make generous investments in IT-systems infrastructure; we shall pay even more attention to the training and retraining of the personnel who will use the system, handholding them through the nuances and the relevant change management protocols. From the permanent secretaries and directors to those on the mid-level and lower cadres, sufficient resources have been earmarked for capacity building programmes as we work to achieve seamless deployment across all service institutions.
12. Going forward, certain levels of efficiency with the use of relevant technology shall now be required as a necessary condition for exposure to new opportunities and promotion in the civil service. While the State will avail its employees all the right support to scale their IT-systems knowledge, it is incumbent on everyone to appreciate that the old era of operational inefficiency is gone for good; you either up-skill and grow, or become uncompetitive and stagnant.
13. We are aware that across the MDAs, there are acute challenges with availability and number of personnel with competences in ICT. These challenges shall be addressed through training and capacity development over the long run but in the meantime, we shall develop a mechanism that will enable the hiring of experts on contract to support the first phase of this project by working with the relevant officials to lay a solid foundation for eventual ownership by the MDAs.
14. While we shall be starting with the civil servants and those working for the government as appointees and in several other capacities, the full project scope goes beyond public offices and those under the payroll of the administration. Our broad vision is to connect the larger Abia economy to the digital space to drive enterprise growth, create jobs and new opportunities for entrepreneurs. We already have an existing agreement with an ICT industry leader to drive the laying of fibre optic cables across the State, starting with the urban, business-populated destinations.
15. Eventually, we shall cover every part of the State as we work to reduce the development gap between the urban and rural communities through consistent investments in infrastructure and partnership with stakeholders in the development space. We are already looking at the future when the bulk of trading activities happening around the State shall be conducted through online retail outlets.
16. In the New Abia that we envision, traders, farmers, artists and fabricators can interact and consummate businesses on virtual platforms. In the same vein, artisans and those with varieties of skills can be hired by anyone from anywhere to sell their services and make money without necessarily leaving their homes. The future, I can tell you, is very bright and we are setting the structures that will give our people the advantage to prosper and live out their dreams, right here.
17. We may not be able to achieve everything in one day but the good news is that we have taken off and there will be no going back. As we recently demonstrated with the seamless conduct of computer-based tests for candidates seeking employment as teachers in our public school system, only the technologically-ready shall thrive in the New Abia. We have also made giant technological strides in the areas of tax collection and revenue reporting and management; project monitoring and tracking; and land allocation and authentication protocols. Everything we do will ultimately be driven by technology but it has to be made clear that we shall never surrender our roles and agencies to machines. The human core shall remain strong because our development philosophy is centred on elevating the human being as the pinnacle of creation, only using technology as a tool to make our daily experiences fulfilling and our impact, enduring.
18. Thank you for listening and may God bless Abia State.
Dr Alex C. Otti, OFR,
21/03/2025