Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has said that fasting and prayers alone cannot grow the economy or solve the country’s problems.
Osinbajo said this on Wednesday at a sensitization meeting with civil servants on Executive Order – Ease of Doing Business held at the International Conference Centre in Abuja.
While stressing the importance of hard work as the nation battles recession, the Acting President said Nigeria’s economy would not grow by engaging in fasting and prayers all the time.
“No matter how long we pray and fast, our nation won’t grow until some of us decide to do the hard work that will make our nation work,” he said.
The Acting President said there was the need for Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to brace up for reforms that would clearly state their functions to avoid duplication of duties and to enhance effectiveness.
He said civil servants are the drivers of the Executive Orders, stressing that everything that happens negatively in the process of doing business instigated by agencies directly or indirectly affects creation of jobs.
“Every time we postpone processes of businesses we delay the prosperity of many. If you help others move forward you will find help. Don’t see this as a government policy but a personal policy,” he said.
On the need to consume made in Nigeria products as contained in the Executive Orders, Osinbajo said in the coming months the country’s rice would be able to compete anywhere in the world.
He said the the call for improved renumeration for civil and public servants to encourage motivation, Osinbajo said the present administration knows what it means not to earn enough and be owed salaries.
He said the country has some of the best civil servants in the world in terms of knowledge, but it was regrettable that the implementation of government programmes and policies was still a challenge.
“Our civil service is not just the largest in Africa but the best educated and we must prove that we are not just bigger but better. The public service has power to change the social, economic and development story of a nation. Every generation owes the next generation a debt and it is true when they say the future is in our hands,” he said.
He, therefore, called on the civil servants to be up and doing in the daily discharge of their duties, saying “every time we say come back next week for something we could do today, we postpone the prosperity of that person and the nation.”
