Governor Godwin Obaseki has raised the alarm over the high rate of wastage in government, especially at the federal level, warning that the country will sink into deeper trouble unless deliberate steps are taken to cut down waste.

Obaseki spoke as a panelist during a plenary on “Reinventing government: Digitalisation of public institutions,” at the just concluded 29th Nigerian Economic Summit, in Abuja.

He said, “We need to reinvent governance. You can’t reinvent government unless you digitalise and open up your systems. We have no option. We have to be efficient.

“We have to be efficient to support production. Especially at the federal level; the waste is too much and unless we change, we will be in trouble. In fact, we are already in trouble and if we don’t change, we will be in deeper trouble.”

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Obaseki, while sharing his Edo State e-governance experience at the event, said digitalisation of government required the political will and commitment of the political leaders because of resistance from civil servants.

He noted that sometimes even when the political leader has a well-thought-out and noble policy, getting civil servants to implement same was a challenge and in his case, he had to insist.

The governor stated that until the digitalisation exercise in Edo State, civil servants, public office holders, and the executive operated in silos, adding that the story has now changed.

He said his administration over the past seven years has pursued transformative reforms to digitise work processes in the civil and public service, transiting service delivery from an archaic, analogue, and strenuous mode to a digitised, seamless, and efficient mode.