The Arewa Professional Forum (APF) has urged the Federal Government to accelerate the adoption of digital governance and paperless administration across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), saying recent developments surrounding the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) underscore the need to strengthen institutional systems rather than dwell on assigning blame.
In a statement issued on Friday, July 31, 2026, and signed by its National President, Comrade Auwal Muhammed, the Forum said attention should be focused on consolidating ongoing public service reforms capable of preventing administrative lapses through technology-driven governance.
According to the Forum, the issues surrounding the PFIPC should serve as a wake-up call for government institutions to eliminate manual processes that often create opportunities for delays, weak documentation and verification challenges.
The APF noted that one of the landmark achievements under the leadership of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, OON, mni, has been the transformation of the Federal Civil Service through digital innovation, automation and the drive towards a fully paperless public service.
It observed that over the past two years, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation has implemented one of the country's most ambitious public sector digital reform programmes through the deployment of the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) System, GovMail, the 1-GOV Cloud Platform and other technology-driven initiatives aimed at modernising governance.
The Forum explained that the reforms are gradually replacing cumbersome paper-based procedures with secure digital platforms that promote transparency, accountability, efficient record management, faster decision-making and seamless inter-agency communication.
According to the APF, a fully digitised government communication, approvals and records management system would significantly reduce administrative lapses by creating verifiable audit trails, strengthening institutional accountability and improving transparency across public institutions.
The Forum maintained that expanding digital transformation across all MDAs would make procedural shortcomings easier to detect, monitor and prevent while strengthening public confidence in government institutions.
"It is precisely because of challenges such as these that the Head of the Civil Service has consistently championed the vision of a technology-driven and paperless Federal Civil Service," the statement said.
The Forum further stated that the benefits of the ongoing reforms are already being felt across the country, particularly in Northern Nigeria, where federal institutions have recorded improvements in electronic correspondence, digital service delivery, online examinations, merit-based processes, payroll integrity, digital performance management and capacity-building programmes.
It stressed that digital governance remains critical to improving service delivery in strategic sectors, including education, healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure and public administration, adding that efficient technology-driven systems are indispensable to effective government coordination.
The APF argued that no modern government can continue to rely predominantly on manual administrative processes while seeking world-class standards of transparency, efficiency and accountability.
The Forum therefore called on the Federal Government to sustain and expand digital transformation initiatives across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, insisting that the ongoing reforms within the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation should be consolidated and strengthened rather than distracted by isolated administrative issues.
It added that embracing digital governance nationwide would strengthen institutional integrity, improve collaboration among government agencies, safeguard official records and position Nigeria's public service as a more transparent, efficient and accountable institution capable of meeting the demands of a modern economy.
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