INAUGURAL SPEECH OF THE INCOMING ALARHOSPS PRESIDENT, DR OLUFEMI OLUGBILE, delivered at the inauguration of the new Executive Committee of ALARHOSPS (11th March 2021)
Protocols
I consider it a great honour and a privilege to have the opportunity to serve as the third President of the Association of Lagos State Retired Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries.
I am aware that, in embarking on that journey, I shall be walking in the footsteps of such daunting giants in the history of the Civil Service of the State of Excellence as our inaugural President, Alhaji Aremu Omokayode Anjorin and his successor, Alhaji Olagbaye, as well as the teams that served meritoriously with them in their Executive Committees.
I also wish to acknowledge the awe evoked in me by the stature of the Trustees of the Association, such as my old teacher Mrs Adefemi Taire, who I am always proud to recall taught me Biology as a little greenhorn student at Government College Ibadan.
The other permanent trustees, Rev (Dr) Akindele, Chairman, Alhaji BT Rotinwa, Member II, Pastor (Mrs) MFI Bakare and Rev JM Dansu, are people of equally impressive stature. I truly look forward to working with the Trustees and benefiting from their wisdom and wealth of experience.
In attempting to move ALARHOSPS forwards, walking in the shoes of such giants, I am encouraged by the fact that I have around me a team of highly skilled and motivated friends and colleagues in the incoming Executive Committee. Mr. Ojutiku, our incoming VP1, served as VP2 in the outgoing administration. I am aware that he did a yeoman’s job within the EXCO itself and in carrying out crucial sub-committee functions, such as leading the team that organized the ALARHOSPS Summit. Mrs Giwa, incoming Ex Officio member, served as Secretary in the outgoing administration, while Mr. Tunde Sanuth, our new Secretary, was an Assistant Secretary under Mrs Giwa. These are just a few examples of the calibre of people we have in the team you have elected to carry the ALARHOSPS brand and mission forward. I look forward to working with them.
The motto of ALARHOSPS is ‘Sustaining the Tradition of Excellent Service’.
In the Constitution of the Association, the Aim of the entity known as ALARHOSPS is described as ‘to mobilise and leverage the rich public service experience of retired Lagos State Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries and continuously assist the State Government for sustained prosperity of Lagos State and Nigeria.’
Its objectives are described as follows: ‘To foster interaction among members and promote their welfare; assist Lagos State Government in furthering governance objectives; articulate views on topical issues of interest to Lagos State and Nigeria; associate with similar organizations within and outside Nigeria in promoting good governance and excellent public service; undertake research consultancy aimed at strengthening service delivery in public service; organize for members relevant programmes in entrepreneurial development, investment, healthy living, information technology and other such developmental and life improving programmes; institute life insurance policy for the benefit of members spouse and children; to do all such other things incidental or relevant to the attainment of the above objectives.
I wish to give fulsome credit to the administrations that have gone before for the giant strides they have taken not only to ensure that ALARHOSPS was successfully birthed and nourished through its early years, but also to ensure that it has been sustained to a point where it is now firmly on its legs and able to move forward with confidence into the future. The fact that people serving currently in positions as Head of Service and Permanent Secretaries make no secret of the fact that they look forward to joining our ranks on retirement is evidence that the Association has creditably conducted itself and shown evidence of its readiness to fulfill the mission and vision that constitute its raison d’etre.
A few of the achievements of past administrations of ALARHOSPS to date are the following:
An engagement with the government through the Association’s Pensions Standing Committee that culminated in the adoption by Lagos State government of Government Pension Reform Law of 2014, and its signing into Law with effect from March 2019. This has resulted into a situation whereby members of ALARHOSPS who retired under the Contributory Pension Scheme now enjoy 100% of their salary at retirement as Pension.
A continuous engagement with government concerning the more senior members of ALARHOSPS who retired under the Pay-As-You-Go scheme. A variable increase of 0-50% was approved by the Governor in 2019. Later, an across the board increase of 33% to the pensions of these worthy individuals, effective from September 2020, was approved. However, this remains an ongoing area of engagement with government, as the target of ALARHOSPS is a harmonization for members on both Pay-As-You-Go and Contributory Pension schemes.
Facilitating interaction with Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA) for the purpose of creating awareness among members of the Association concerning the need for them to enroll in the Basic Health Insurance Scheme of the government. This has led to a few members taking the initiative of signing on to the scheme. However, the percentage of the total membership enrolled so far is still relatively low.
Publishing a well-resourced compendium titled ‘Five Decades of Excellent Public Service in Lagos State: 1967-2017’. The compendium was formally presented to the public on 26th November 2019.
Organising seven sessions of impactful, well-received ALARHOSPS Summits, the last of which was held in December 2020 with the theme ‘Lagos 21st Century Economy In Post-COVI-19 Pandemic: Health, Environment, Tourism & Entertainment in Focus’ .
Despite these achievements, the Association remains, of necessity, a work in progress. With my colleagues in the incoming Executive Committee, we see our primary assignment as carrying on the work of the association from where the outgoing Executives are leaving off, taking pains to see that there is a seamless transition and that we are able to build on every one of their attainments. The reward for good work, as the saying goes, is more work. In reality, this means we expect ourselves to have our hands full, as a direct ‘consequence’ of the good work that has been done already.
Beyond all that, we will, of course, be taking a fresh look at the broad agenda of the Association as set out in its Constitution, with a view to exploring the use of new thinking and technology to further achieve the stated aims and objectives. You may expect action in the following areas:
A. Welfare, Health and Wellness. The topics are deliberately listed as separate but related items.
I)Welfare refers to the totality of a person’s existence – including the social, material, and even financial ambience of such existence. We intend to do everything possible to keep the quality of life of ALARHOSPS members at a premium. The dichotomy between the pensions of the members on Pay-As-You-Go scheme and those in the Contributory Pension group will be vigorously addressed with a view to further reducing, and if possible, eliminating the difference. Any other measures that may meaningfully improve quality of life, such as training programmes from experts in different areas of human learning will be added to the regular fare of our meetings.
II)Regarding Health, we intend to sign on ALL ALARHOSPS members immediately onto the State’s Basic Health Insurance Scheme. We are gratified that the outgoing executive committee has already made a commitment in this direction. We shall, with the approval of the house, proceed speedily to implementation. To kick-start the process, the Association will be responsible for paying one year’s individual premiums on behalf of all its members. Those members who wish to sign on their spouses and other dependents will have to make additional payments to cover these. The payment of the first year’s premium is to be taken as a complimentary gesture to commence the process and achieve total enrolment in one fell swoop. It is expected that every member who has enjoyed the benefit for a period of one year will see the need to renew for future years at their own expense. ALARHOSPS through this gesture will also be setting a positive example for government and LASHMA to help popularize and drive-up public enrollment throughout the State. The matter has already been discussed in detail with the General Manager of LASHMA, Dr Emmanuella Zamba who has promised to arrange an exceptional customer-friendly enrollment process whereby her officials will be deployed to interface with members of the Association in an individualized arrangement to be drawn up from the contact details of members in the ALARHOSPS database. Each member will be enrolled at a time and in a manner that is most convenient for them. A sub-Committee made up of Doctors and Social Welfare officers from within the Association’s membership will be set up to supervise the process, monitor implementation and respond to operational complaints arising from users.
III) Finally, Wellness of members will be addressed in a deliberate and continuous way through regular health education talks and issuance of informative literature such as flyers on different topics related to prevention of illness.
B. We shall seek to deepen the impact of the ALARHOSPS Summit by pushing for a stronger interactive engagement with serving Permanent Secretaries and Senior Civil Servants, especially those of the Director grade. This, we believe, will increase the chances of the results of the deliberations being translated into policy that will ultimately benefit the government and people of our State, and remove any ‘us-and-them’ barrier to execution.
C. We hope to continue the visibility and participation of ALARHOSPS in regional and national associations for Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries, in order to maintain the primacy of place and recognition enjoyed by Lagos State – the State of Excellence.
D. In tandem with the times, there will be an increased use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the running of the affairs of ALARHOSPS. This will include virtual interactions, creating a virtual database in an appropriate cloud repository to supplement hardcopy records, and upgrading the general standard of the use of ICT in the secretariat. In the course of time, ALARHOSPS will have an interactive website that its members may relate with or tap into from any part of the world for information. The skills of existing Secretariat staff to facilitate this level of operations will be upgraded through training, if possible. If this proves impracticable, staff with appropriate levels of IT-enabled skills will be procured to assist the Secretary in manning the secretariat.
E. A library made up of current as well as reference volumes of relevant Civil Service publications will be created at the Secretariat.
F. A ‘Hang-Out Corner’ will be created in the Secretariat for the purpose of encouraging members to use the secretariat for recreation and relaxation purposes during the daytime, without disturbing in any way the more ‘serious’ operations of the secretariat. Facilities that will be available in the ‘corner’ will include indoor games and cable television. There will, of course, be ready access to appropriate refreshments from a nearby cafeteria.
G. The efforts to secure a permanent secretariat for ALARHOSPS will continue unabated.
H. Your Executive Committee will have a capacity for quick and appropriate response to any issues that may arise that affect the constitutionally stated interests of the Association and its members.
We promise to strive with every sinew to meet these performance targets that we have set for ourselves. It is our fond hope that, at the end of our tenure, we shall be handing over to the fourth Executive Committee a strong and viable ALARHOSPS, in the same manner in which it is being handed to us now.
Long live ALARHOSPS. Long live the Government and People of Lagos State, the State of Excellence.
Olufemi Olugbile
