ABU Alumni Association Honours Rivers HOS

The Rivers State Head of Service (HOS), Mrs. Esther Anucha was among five distinguished personalities honoured by the Rivers State branch of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria Alumni association at a fund raising ceremony/public lecture held at the Atlantic hall of Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt last Friday.
In a citation read at the occasion, the Alumni association described Mrs. Anucha as the quintessential daughter of the state, a highly disciplined, diligent, skillful administrator and astute manager of human and material resources, who in just two years as the Head of the State Civil Service has made a lot of difference in the system and could be said to be the “Esther” of Rivers State Civil Service.
The citation went further to enumerate some of her landmark achievements as Head •of Service which include the eradication of the ghost workers syndrome through the successful implementation of the e-payment system, the introduction of reforms in the civil service through capacity building programmes, the annual celebration of the civil service week, the introduction of an annual inter-ministerial football competition which has united the state civil service and has also enabled civil servants to keep fit, the transformation of the entire landscape of the State Secretariat Complex, the provision of banking and decent fast food services, replacement of obsolete lifts, and the initiation of the process of unifying salary grading in the State Pubic Service, among several others.
Mrs. Anucha who holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) degree in Social Sciences from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and a Masters Degree in Pubic Administration (MPA) from the University of Liverpool, is also a lovely wife and caring mother, happily married to Eze Dr. Dominic Anucha, a one-time deputy governor of the old Rivers State, and blessed with four children, two of whom have graduated as lawyers.
In her welcome address at the occasion, the Chairperson of the Rivers State branch of the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Dr Jessica Ezekiel Hart said the association had for several years pioneered efforts at improving infra structural content of their alma mater and the overall development of university education in Nigeria.
She appealed to invitees, Corporate organizations and other well-meaning individuals to join the Association in bringing succour to universities in the country, stressing that “government does not have the where-with-all to do it alone”.
The event, which was chaired by the Chairman of the Rivers State Economic Advisory Council, Prof. Nimi Briggs also featured a keynote address by the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Chibuzor Ogwuoha and a lecture entitled, “Strategies for Solving the Niger Delta Problem” delivered by Prof. Emmanuel Okoro of the University of Ilorin.
Other recipients of the award include the Archbishop, Ecclesiastical province of Niger Delta and Bishop of Niger Delta North, Anglican communion, Most Rev. Ignatius Katey, the Rector of the Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori, Prof. Tokubiye Sokari, the Rivers State Police Commissioner, Mr Bala Hassan, and Executive Director, projects of NDDC, Ach. E. 1. Etteh, all of whom are alumni of ABU, Zaria.