Oyo-Ita reveals only way Buhari’s plan will fail to pull Nigeria out of recession

The Head of Service (HoS) of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, has said that only way President Muhammadu Buhari’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) will fail to pull the country out of recession is through the laxity of civil servants towards its implementation.

Oyo-Ita disclosed this during a dialogue session with senior civil servants whom she co-hosted with the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, in Abuja.

According to the HoS, the failure of the ERGP, which the Buhari administration designed to pull the country out of the economic quagmire, can only be averted when federal civil servants become more committed to duty as the implementation of the plan rests fully with them.

She said: “Implementation rests fully on the shoulders of the public service, because it is the public service that actually does the day-to day work of government.
“Whatever the public service is doing; if it is not done effectively and efficiently, it cannot move the private sector; it cannot move the economy anywhere.”
Oyo-Ita further urged the civil servants to adopt an optimistic approach towards the Change Agenda of President Buhari for the desired growth of the economy to be realized.

“I want to appeal to permanent secretaries and CEOs that this is not the time for passing the buck or looking for excuses here and there.
“This meeting is to rub minds with the ministry of budget and national planning on how best the ERGP can move forward. We don’t want to hear: ‘Why it cannot work’. We want to hear: ‘How it is going to work’,” she said.

On his part, Udoma said the dialogue session was to ensure that Permanent Secretaries and Chief Executive Officers of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government understand their responsibilities as regards ERGP.

“Accountability for the delivery of the plan lies with all the MDAs. The plan cannot succeed without the commitment of the civil service. We have to ensure that we work as a team,” he said.

Senator Udoma added that although the implementation process of the ERGP has commenced some of the execution priorities in the plan were contained in the different sections of the 2017 appropriation Bill. Hence, there was need for the top brass of the civil service to also handle the implementation of the 2017 budget meticulously.