The Deputy Chief of Staff to the Nigerian President (Office of the Vice President), Ibrahim Hassan-Hadeja, says digitization of government operations is the way to go as the government seeks better efficiency among its workers.
He made the declaration on Monday at the opening of a digitization training for staff of the Office of the Vice President.
Hassan-Hadeja said digitization is the trend, and Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind, hence the need for such training.
Addressing participants, the Deputy Chief of Staff said: “Reasons for going digital are very simple. If you don’t go digital, you get to a point where you will even fail to integrate with the rest of the world. Everybody is moving ahead, and you have to get to that level where you can at least get that connectivity.”
He added that plans are in place to ensure that beginning next year, 80 percent of all government activities are digitized.
“Nigeria is supposed to have embraced open governance to the point where by next year, 80 percent of government activities would be online. We are not there yet, but I believe that the only way we can be there is to lead from the top.
“If you have a State House that is digitized or has gone paperless, every agency and everybody would be forced to comply,” he added.
The Deputy Chief of Staff stressed that when fully adopted, the digitization process should be enforced in all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to make it very useful.
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“Compliance has to be enforced because if you wait for everybody to be ready, you will not achieve the goal. If you have a situation where you are forced to present your requests or responses in a digital format, everybody will be forced to comply,” he said.
He commended the judiciary for adopting the use of digital forms of operations, which he said has improved efficiency among Justices and Judges.
“Surprisingly, the judiciary is almost at the forefront of digitization now. It simply happened because several years ago the Supreme Court said it would not tolerate paper processes from lawyers anymore. They said, ‘get an email, which we certify and then you send us a digital process’ so every single lawyer that has a case in the Supreme Court and every respondent will have to comply,” Hassan-Hadeja stated.
He said embracing digitization in the State House will go a long way in enhancing the government’s e-governance policy.
Permanent Secretary in charge of the State House, Olusegun Adebiyi, said the State House decided to set up a training centre to enhance efficiency among its workers, adding that more training would be organized periodically for staff.
The Permanent Secretary announced that 500 pieces of desktop computers have been procured, preparatory to the full digitization of operations in the seat of power.
He urged participants to ensure full participation in the training and utilize what they learn to be more relevant in carrying out their official tasks.
