LASG tasks staff on sound policy formulation, implementation

Lagos State Government has tasked its workforce to come up with suggestions on how to formulate and execute government policies that would address challenges confronting majority of the populace.

The State Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr. Akintola Benson-Oke gave the charge today at the opening session of a workshop tagged: Policy Analysis Development and Implementation, organised by the State Government for Policy Analysts in Lagos Public Service at Ikeja.

He maintained that those involved in government policy process need to possess strong analytical skills and ability to apply a variety of research and evaluation methods within a complex political and economic environment.

The Commissioner said that the training will review the analytical approaches that are essential for effective policy development in modern times.

The training will cover the nature and role of policy analysts and the interaction among social institutions, markets and government. It will examine how to conduct effective policy analysis, manage the policy development process, and produce sound and persuasive policy reports and recommendation to the government, he said.

He informed that policy-making and implementation functions in governance are important because governments are repeatedly confronted with problems that call for apt and appropriate solutions.

Benson-Oke added that challenges of governance in recent time have taken complex features and as such a government of metropolitan state like Lagos must have a pool of skilled, trained and current policy analysts and developers who will assist the government in designing the right, appropriate and sustainable answers to complex and urgent problems.

The Commissioner said that the present administration is taking up challenges to aspire to the highest standards of governance and administration that the citizens expect of the government.

He maintained that all the achievements of the Ambode-led administration since inception is hinged on the quality of reforms and policies enunciated by the government policy makers, adding that there is little or nothing that could be achieved by any government without a robust policy-making process.

He, therefore, urged participants to embrace the capacity development initiative and open their minds to new ideas that might emanate in the course of the training.


I exhort public policy analysts and developers in the Lagos State Public Service to learn to focus quickly on the central decision criterion of a problem requiring attention, avoid the Tool-box Approach to analysing policies and also learn how to deal with uncertainty, Benson-Oke reiterated.

Exercise: A Future Investment

If current life expectancy is 58 years and adulthood begins at age 18, your midlife crisis is expected to occur between age of 35 to 40. Yoruba have an adage that says life begins at age 40. It is merely described as a time when adults contemplate their mortality and the waning years they have left to enjoy life. Now before the age of 40 many people have started experiencing symptoms of diseases depending on individual life style

According to Arbaje (a well known Psychologist), for many people, the mid-40s is the time in life when our future isn’t a scary unknown, our past is something we can laugh about, and our present is filled with marriage, kids, careers, and a general satisfaction in knowing who we are and what we want out of life. So it’s not surprising that we may feel melancholy beyond our 40s, when the future can once again seem uncertain. Let me tell you the truth, whatever your life style is before the age of 40 matters a lot.


As you grow old, the body physiological parameters also grow and wears out gradually. In some individual it is faster while in others it is slow depending on your lifestyle. Research shows that only 8 percent of young adults reported no daily stressors, compared with 12 percent of middle-aged adults (ages 40 to 59) and 19 percent of older people (ages 60 to 74).

Regular physical exercise boost both your energy and your mood, and it reinforces you more at old age Exercise is about way more than fitting into our clothes as we get older, it is one of the biggest factors determining our quality of life, says Rhonder Anderson.

The day-to-day activities they find hardest at age 50 and above include putting on socks, stockings and trousers, using escalators, stepping up into garden beds or bending down to pull out weeds, carrying groceries, walking up and down stairs, and getting up off the floor.

All of these require balance, strength, flexibility and coordination, which can be developed through circuits and obstacle courses — pulling, pushing, lifting and squatting. To walk up and down stairs, over things and around things, with changes of direction, going backwards and sideways has become so challenging for so many adults all because of lack of regular exercise.

Many of us are investing so much into material things which cannot save us at old age. So many people have fleet of cars but couldn’t at least buy one exercise equipment and even those who manage to buy it use it to decorate their room. Let us look at it this way, when you read, you increase the capacity of your brain. The same way reading increase the capacity of your brain is the same way exercise increase the capacity of your body system to function well at old age.

Human beings often aren’t good at thinking about the long term benefit of exercise, but  I am telling you that nurturing your health and developing good exercise habits in our 20s - 60s is a huge investment in the quality of your 70s and 80s.

To exercise is very cheap but to treat complications arising from lack of regular exercise is very expensive, don’t allow yourself to be a lab rat from which others learn from.

 Check your diet, do your regular exercise

By Toye Okunola
Exercise physiologist
For AgegePulse Magazine
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