At last, Lagos gets portal, number for non-emergency services

A platform, known as Citizen Relationship Management, CRM, on which citizens can interact with officials of the government on issues affecting them directly, has come into affect in Lagos State Launching and explaining the need for the initiative, the state governor, Babatunde Fashola, said it was modelled after international best practices where citizens are saved the inconvenience and expense in getting issues resolved by the government or its agencies. He noted that the idea is for a citizen of the state to be able to call a dedicated number to report, for instance, about refuse piling up or a burst water pipe or leaking sewage to enable the relevant agencies to attend to these issues within a stipulated time, depending on the magnitude of the problem. According to him, with the launch of the CRM platform, it would be unnecessary for citizens to come to the Alausa Secretariat or to the Governor’s Office to report a situation or to pursue files from office to office for signatures. Remarking that people still want to make eye contact with government officials, regardless of the existence of telephones they could use to call the official lines government published for the purpose, he said: “We are stepping into the future today because I know that perhaps only members of this generation are still comfortable with eye-to-eye contact but those of the generation behind us are already talking to themselves with their cellphones, other applications and, perhaps they will be the biggest beneficiaries of this CRM but everybody is entitled to use it.” - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/05/at-last-lagos-gets-portal-number-for-non-emergency-services/#sthash.mgUUBedx.dpuf