By
Taiye Bayode
The sky over Lokoja was still heavy with cloud on Monday morning when the road outside the office of the Secretary to the State Government began to fill. The people gathering there are usually seen with files under their arms and lanyards around their necks. This time they came with water bottles in hand and comfortable shoes on their feet, and they were all facing the same direction.
It was 28th September 2026, and the health walk of the 2026 Civil Service Week was about to begin.
By the time the procession set off, the road had turned into a river of colour. Navy blue T-shirts marked “2026 Civil Service Week” moved beside white ones, some carrying the words “Team HoS” across the front. Caps in blue, white and maroon bobbed above the crowd, and banners carrying the week’s theme, “Digital Transformation, a Panacea for Better Civil Service Delivery,” rose and dipped with the pace of the walkers. Behind the crowd, the green hills that watch over Lokoja stood quietly in the morning light.
At the front was the Head of Service, Hajiya Falilat Yusuf Musa, Esq, who walked with the workforce rather than ahead of it, using the morning to say what the walk was really about. “A healthy civil servant is a productive civil servant,”
“When our people are strong in body and sound in mind, the quality of service we deliver to the people of Kogi State can only get better. This walk is a reminder that our well-being matters, and that we do this together.”
Nobody was in a hurry. Directors walked beside officers, and colleagues who usually know one another only through memos and phone calls finally matched faces to names. Every few minutes a phone came up for a photograph. Along the road, motorists slowed down and passers-by turned to look, and the procession moved through the town like a friendly parade.
Some of the placards carried messages of appreciation for the administration of His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, FCA. They mentioned the Kogi State International Airport, the Ultra Modern Market, and support for youth and sports development, and they added a note of pride to the mood of the day.
The most striking group of the morning wore red. Staff of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, led by the Permanent Secretary, Hajiya Musa-Amana Sualihat, turned out in matching attire and across the back of the shirts was a line meant for anyone walking behind them: “Register Your Business Premises.”
The Ministry had brought its everyday message onto the road, and it stayed in front of the crowd from start to finish.
By the time the last walkers reached Ganaja Junction, something had changed. What began as a schedule had become a shared morning that people would remember and talk about. Organisers said they were optimistic the same spirit would carry into the lectures, the launch and the award night, and that the walk would be remembered as the morning Kogi’s civil service stepped out together, as one family.
