By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
The Federal Government has urged the para-military agencies to hit 100 percent goals with the current on-going reforms.
The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, stated this on Saturday while signing one-year performance contracts with the para-military agencies.
The agencies involved were; the Nigeria Immigration Service, (NIS), the Nigerian Correctional Service, (NCoS), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC), and the Federal Fire Service (FFS). The National Identity Management Commission, NIMC.
The major issues and challenges being addressed included; passports and Visa reforms, Prisons decongestion, reformation of inmates in line with global standards, protection of critical national assets and infrastructures and fire fighting reforms.
The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo who supervised the signing of the performance contracts at the end of a three day retreat
at Zuma Rock Resort, Suleja, Niger state, said the on going reforms in all the agencies must be seen to their logical conclusions with 100 percent grades.
“Yes. When we did the last retreat, we were 62 percent. A year after, the Presidential Performance Assessment Initiative moved us from 62 percent to 85 percent. So now our target is 100 percent. That is why I asked the Permanent Secretary to give me one reason why I need to change a winning team, ” Tunji-Ojo said.
The Minister emphasised the need for capacity building for personnel of the para-military Services, saying that capacity building would bring the best out of them and aligned them with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
He urged the Director General of NIMC, Engr Abisoye Coker-Odusote to continue the reforms in NIMC to ensure that Nigeria have a solid foundational identity that could be authenticated, verified and free of fraud and abuses.
Tunji-Ojo said the reforms in the Nigeria Correctional Service should be carried out to achieve transformation and reformation of inmates, saying that Correctional Centres should no longer be a place for condemnation.
The Minister said the agencies should not only make Mr President proud, but leave a legacy of building strong institutions that would stand the test of time after the exit of the current leaders.
For the Federal Fire Service, he said:” I told you there’s a lot of work to be done in terms of orientation, in terms of scope of service. By this time next year, I want to see a fire service that will be custodian of emergency medical service. I want to see a fire service that will be liberalized.
“I want to see a fire service that will allow for private sector participation. I want to see a fire service that will be able to regulate and be able to enumerate the sector. And I want to see a Fire Service that will be judged by the number of assets saved.”
On his part, the Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Abubakar Audi, noted that a similar performance contract was signed with the Minister last year. He stated that the NSCDC performed well, as confirmed by the Minister during his remarks. However, he acknowledged that there was still room for improvement and pledged that the Corps would roll out strategies to surpass last year’s performance.
He further emphasised that the NSCDC’s mandate is critical to the sustainable development of the country, as it is the lead agency responsible for protecting national critical assets.
