By CHARLES IWUOHA

Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, has charged members of the enlarged State Executive Council to approach their assignments and governance with sense of urgency.

Otti gave the charge while declaring open a two-day retreat organized by the State Government for members of the enlarged Abia State Executive Council held at the International Conference Centre, Umuahia with the theme, "Sustaining Momentum: Accelerating Execution".

The Governor, who titled his speech, "Eyes On The Ball", said that the retreat which is the First Executive Council Retreat for 2025 is designed as a leadership exposition, interactive session, and agenda-setting forum aimed at identifying operational bottlenecks and proffering solutions to ensure effective governance in the state.

He reiterated his administration?s commitment to raising governance standards far beyond those of past administrations and emphasized that every sector of Abia?s economic and social service ecosystem is crucial to the state?s development.

Otti stressed the need for them to develop a robust and sustainable execution template that will drive the attainment of Abia State?s strategic governance targets for the current fiscal year.

This is contained in a statement issued on Saturday by the governor's Chief Press Secretary, Ukoha Njoku Ukoha.

"This administration is not going to be judged by the mediocre standards of the past administration because we were elected to raise the bar and raise it very very, high.

"What we need to do in the course of this retreat is to see where and how our approach to the execution has deviated from the trajectory we seek to travel.

"The agenda for us all in this exercise shall be to collectively develop a robust execution template that will drive the attainment of our strategic governance target for the current fiscal year.

"This retreat has been set up to underline how we shall run as a government in the new year. 2025 will be a crucial year for the State. So, we are required to exceed whatever we achieved in the past," Gov. stated.

He encouraged participants to use the retreat as an opportunity to assess deviations from the set trajectory and realign strategies for improved execution and called for open and constructive engagement among attendees.

Speaking earlier, the Secretary to the State Government, Professor Kenneth Kalu, said that the Otti administration has gathered momentum in several areas of infrastructural development, health, education and other sectors, and stressed that the retreat is aimed at sustaining the momentum.

He said that the retreat is an opportunity for the participants to reflect and map out strategies to move towards achieving the goals of the present administration and urged them not to be satisfied at the level they find themselves at present.

In his paper presentation titled, "Enhancing Public Service Through Efficiency, Accountability, Transparency and Impactful Reforms", a former Head of Service of the Federation, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, regretted some challenges in the service to include lack of capacity, accountability and transparency and recommended capacity building, conducive work environment, and contract appointments to fill the gaps in the service

Orosanye stressed the need for staff auditing, identifying the competence gap, determining the size of workforce needed and embarking on training and retraining to have an impactful reforms.

He said that there should be collaboration between the Civil Service Commission and the Office of the Head of Service, adding that the friction between the public and civil servants could be minimised by acknowledging that they are working to achieve a goal.

In their separate speeches,some participants including the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, Sir Chris Onwuegbu and his Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning counterpart, Lady Ugonma Jimonu said that the retreat is to ensure that top government officials in the State are brought to the same page as they strive to build a new Abia as envisioned by Governor Otti.

They said that the retreat would reduce conflict between political appointees and the bureaucrats, adding that they would be going back home with better understanding on the ways of implementing the polices and programmes of the government for 2025.

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