Naira notes

A Management Consultant, Mr Mike Okereke, has urged the Federal and State Government to set aside and utilise two per cent of staff salaries for training of civil servants.

Okereke gave the advice during a thanksgiving service to mark his 80th birthday at All Souls Anglican Church in Lagos on Sunday, the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports.

According to him, some state governments felt they could do without training and this was part of inefficiency and poor service delivery being experienced

“Staff development and training is the engine that drives any organisation.

“Government should realise that Human Resource Development is key to the efficiency of the government.

“It will be wrong to think you are saving money by preventing employees from being trained.

“Currently most employees of the government are having little or no training and local trainings are not being pursued with the vigour with which it should be pursued, ” Okereke said.

The celebrator, who was also an expert in human resources and planning, said that there was need for state governments to change their attitude toward training.

A banker, Mr Ezenwa Okereke, and child of Mr Okereke, described his father as a wonderful father , saying “he cares a lot for other people around him.”

Ezenwa said that the octogenarian was healthy because he took care of himself.

An actress, Maureen Solomon-Okereke, decribed her father-in-law as a loving and caring father.

She prayed for him to live long to see his great grand children.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Okereke is a leader in the communication industry in Africa, former board member of International Public Relations Association and a former President, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations.

NAN reports that Okereke was a contemporary of a former Head of State, Chief Ernest Shonekan at UAC Group.