The bell tolls for the godfather syndrome in Nigeria\u2019s
\npublic service. It may sound like a tall order, but President Goodluck Jonathan
\nsays he is confident that the conniving spirit of nepotism could be subdued, if
\nnot altogether banished from our public life. The number one citizen thinks
\nthat we should begin to give merit a pride of place.<\/p>\n
The President wraps up his new policy thrust with a tinge of
\nhumour. He said: \u201cYou don\u2019t have to know somebody who knows somebody before you
\ncan be given any high office to serve in the new direction we want to chart for
\nthe country.\u201d Perhaps, to demonstrate his seriousness to fight the \u201cman know
\nman\u201d tendency, the President \u00a0in April this year, directed the Ministers
\nof Finance and Health to advertise the vacant positions of chief executives of
\nthe Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the National Health Insurance
\nScheme (NHIS) for competent Nigerians to apply.<\/p>\n
He said that henceforth, all vacant federal offices would be
\nadvertised to enable competent Nigerians apply for such jobs. That, in his
\nview, will ensure that all appointments into sensitive government offices will
\nbe based on merit. It is also expected to effectively clip the wings of
\nGodfathers. For those who doubt the President\u2019s resolve, he would say again:
\n\u201cThe feeling that a Nigerian must know somebody who knows somebody who will
\ntalk to somebody before he gets something must end.\u201d<\/p>\n
This Presidential directive is beginning to change the way
\nthings are done in some federal government agencies. The Niger Delta
\nDevelopment Commission, NDDC, is one such agency now playing by the new rules.
\nThe new board and management of the commission had, from the word go, chosen
\nthe path of excellence in service delivery. The board hit the ground running
\nafter its inauguration by President Jonathan on November 29, 2011.<\/p>\n
At his very first encounter with the media, the NDDC
\nManaging Director, Dr. Christian Oboh, pledged to serve the people of the Niger
\nDelta in the best way possible.\u201dThe people of the region are the people we are
\nworking for and we are going to train the youths. I am a youth myself, I have
\nbeen empowered, and I need to empower other people. So, we are going to do
\neverything to empower them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The new boss got down to business as soon as the handover
\nceremonies were concluded. He quickly approved the immediate release of funds
\nto settle school fees of beneficiaries of NDDC scholarship studying in the
\nvarious universities abroad. \u201cWe heard that our children studying overseas have
\nnot paid their fees, we must pay their fees by next week,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n
From the first few actions of the new helmsman, it was clear
\nthat the interventionist agency had been imbued with a new vibrancy. Certainly,
\nthe commission entered a new phase from that point. The youthful leadership
\nbecame a boom for the youths of the region. They are now fully on board in the
\narduous task of fast-tracking development in Nigeria\u2019s oil-producing region.
\nThe interventionist agency has since broadened its youth empowerment
\nprogrammes, especially in the area of training quality manpower. The foreign
\nscholarship scheme has been strengthened while new young engineers and lawyers
\nhave been employed through a very transparent and credible process.<\/p>\n
In all, the NDDC management placed a lot of premium on the
\nselection process. Everything was done to ensure that all qualified Niger Delta
\nyouths were given equal opportunities. An independent institution, the Rivers
\nState University of Science and Technology [RSUST] provided the electronic
\nplatform for the selection process for both the scholarship and recruitment of
\nengineers and lawyers.<\/p>\n
The NDDC, consultant on the exercise, Dr. Hilkiah Igoni, explained
\nthat the essence of electronic interview was to ensure transparency and
\naccountability in the process. \u201cThe whole idea of making it electronic is to
\nensure that the candidates can actually see their results immediately\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Director, ICT, in the university, Prof. S. A. Braid
\ncommended the NDDC for introducing a modern approach to examination and
\nselection of staff. \u201cThe online exams are becoming the order of the day and for
\nNDDC to do this, means that it is in tune with the current trend.\u201d<\/p>\n
The board and management of the NDDC had thought it wise to
\nrecruit more qualified engineers to effectively supervise its projects. To get
\nthe best, a total of 1,200 candidates were put through the commission\u2019s online
\nexamination held at the RSUST electronic examination centre in Port Harcourt.
\nAnother 3,100 passed through the same electronic tests for the scholarships to
\npursue post-graduate studies abroad.<\/p>\n
The Director of Education, Health and Social Services in the
\nNDDC, Dr. Christy Atako, gave an insight into the foreign scholarship
\nprogramme. She said the commission needed to encourage the youths who studied
\nengineering and other science courses to specialise in areas that would assist
\nit in project monitoring and other related assignments. \u201cWe believe that our
\nchildren should have some exposure outside the country in addition to their
\nstudies to enable them to learn from people of other nations in both lifestyle
\nand academics,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
One of the beneficiaries of the Post-graduate Foreign
\nScholarship Scheme, Miss Tubolayefa Warekuromor, is bubbling with ideas after
\nbagging a Masters Degree in Management Information Systems from the Coventry
\nUniversity in the United kingdom. She said that the exposure she got during her
\nstudies in the UK has triggered a burning passion \u201cto take home the knowledge,
\nexperience and skills to contribute to the development of the Niger Delta.\u201d<\/p>\n
The director described the selection process as very
\ntransparent. \u201cEach candidate has the opportunity to compete and then we take
\nthe best. Several applications were received but only those who met the
\ncriteria were shortlisted for the computer-based test,\u201d she said. The
\nsuccessful candidates who emerged from the selection process have now been
\nemployed and are already cutting their teeth at the NDDC headquarters.<\/p>\n
The lessons from all these are that Godfathers have been
\nsent packing from the NDDC. Surely, the newly employed engineers and lawyers
\ncan testify to this.. Every one of them got the job on merit. No more, no less.
\nMuch of the credit goes to the management team led by Dr. Oboh. According to
\nNDDC\u2019s Director of Legal Services, Barrister George Ero, \u201cwe were getting
\nletters from different sources urging us to assist one person or the other. But
\nthe MD stood his ground and insisted on merit. So, those who were successful
\nmay not have known anybody in the commission.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this age of self-interest and clinging to ethnic
\ncleavages, the new direction in NDDC is commendable and worthy of emulation.
\nThat is the way other agencies of government, be it at the federal or state
\nlevels should be heading. After all, excellence runs on the fuel of merit.
\nMediocrity on the other hand stalls the vehicle of good service delivery.<\/p>\n
As part of its efforts to remove all impediments to credibly
\ndelivering on its mandate, the NDDC has embraced SERVICOM, which waves a banner
\nof contract between the Federal Government and the Nigerian people. The
\ncommission obviously recognises the right of Niger Deltans to demand good
\nservice. The NDDC boss said the introduction of SERVICOM in the commission
\nwould help fast track project implementation and execution in the region. He
\ncharged directors of the commission to immediately establish SERVICOM units in
\ntheir departments.<\/p>\n
By upholding the principle of SERVICOM, the commission would
\nbe better placed to promote transparency and accountability, as well as
\nencourage full stakeholder\u2019s participation in decision making. That would go a
\nlong way in enhancing the quality of management in the commission.<\/p>\n
The values of integrity and accountability in public service
\ncannot be overemphasised. A leadership with an eye for excellence would not
\njoke with discipline, honesty, fairness, dependability and reliability. Of
\ncourse, the culture of responsibility must begin from the top leadership, which
\nmust be in a position to give direction not only by talking integrity, but
\nwalking transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ifeatu Agbu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The bell tolls for the godfather syndrome in Nigeria\u2019s public service. It may sound like a tall order, but President Goodluck Jonathan says he is confident that the conniving spirit of nepotism could be subdued, if not altogether banished from our public life. The number one citizen thinks that we should begin to give merit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}