Arabi bags award of excellence, tasks public servants on service delivery
By Bridget Ikyado
The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) Mr Dasuki Arabi has tasked public servants on value addition for improved service delivery to enhance the lives all Nigerians
Arabi made the call in Abuja after receiving an award of excellence conferred on him by the League of Yoruba Youth for Advocacy and Good Governance on Wednesday.
He said that for any delay in service delivery, the multiplier effect is too much within the service, the government and the federation.
According to him, when there is service delivery failure at any point, in Abuja, we may not feel it but people outside Abuja will feel it.
“If there is a policy delay in the Federal Ministry of Health for instance, and University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital is not able to replace their faulty MIR machine, how many people will die? Many.
“That’s is just as a result of service failure within a desk, in an office that is not this big; our advocacy at all times is to see that, public servants look at citizens as their customers.
“If have a bank account, on my birthday, they will send me messages, if I get into the bank, they say, welcome sir, they cherish me like gold because I have my money with them.
“This is how public service should be to the citizens of this country, we must be seen adding value to change how our people live,’’ he said.
Arabi said that the majority of citizens live outside Abuja and there was a need to ensure they also have access to proper service delivery.
The director-general said that the bureau was looking forward to partnering with all the states and supporting them to establish reform bureaus.
“As a bureau, we are concerned about getting the federation units to key into these reforms, if Nigerian population is about 210 million, and every one of the Federal Government payroll is about 2.7 million, when you subtract 2.7 million from 210 million, you will see that a greater percentage of Nigerians are outside Abuja.
“And they are eagerly waiting for the government, local, state and federal to improve their lives, this improvement can only come with the improvement of service delivery.
“We have done this in Abuja over the years from 1999 to, we have transformed Nigerian public service to a stage that I feel we have done 90 percent of what should be done,’’ he said.
Reacting to the award, Arabi said that he was excited that people outside had noticed the little efforts he and his team were making in reforming public service.
He said that the award will spur him and his team to work hard, urging all public servants to do more for the citizens of Nigeria.
“We are very grateful and happy that somebody outside is noticing the little we are doing to reform public service in Nigeria.
“I am from a very small village where when it rains heavily, a car will not enter until the rain subsides; out of 210 million Nigerians, I am given the chance to be DG, I am not taking this opportunity for granted.
“I am working for my family, I am working for my state, for my community and indeed Nigeria with the hope that somebody somewhere will remember me in the next 1000 years as someone that passed through the system and added value.
“Privileges like this are very rare, I am not the best of graduates from my village or from my family but God in his own mercy bestowed this opportunity on me.
“We must try very hard to add value, and when we add value, we stamp our names in gold for passing through and adding value and not passing and moving on, that is why I have dedicated my life and energy to this work,’’ he said.
Earlier, the President-General of the youth group, Amb. Adediwura Adesina explained that they are a coalition of many youth groups from the South West zone with the Ooni of Ife as grand patron.
He said that after two years of research, they can described Arabi as an epitome of humility, selfless servant and a shining star among his peer with track records.
Adesina that Arabi is a leader, a model and quintessential gentleman, an uncommon mentor and successful manager of men and resources that has touched the lives of many as a consummate administrator with a difference.
He said that Arabi is an exemplary leader with a passion for excellence, a result-oriented man with desire to entrench good governance, transparency and accountability.
“All of us know that there will never be development without reforms, what Nigeria really needs now in all ramifications, is reformation and to have somebody at the helm of affairs, it is for all intelligent functional and intellectually mobile youth to watch him.
“We to watch and see if he is really capable of reform or it is just a title; but today I can congratulate you sir, after two years of research on you, we realize that you are more than capable.
“We want to charge you because we realise that the effects of your work have gone wide in the public service at the federal level while we see some of your activities in some states.
“From our research, it appears not all states have keyed into your activities and we do not know the challenge you are facing on this; if it requires we involve the National Assembly to mandate it or we the civil societies and youth groups to should about it, we really want you to extend your good gesture to all the states for the Nigeria to be a country, an Eldorado that all of us to live in.
“if the public service is in doom, the entire country is already in doom, and we so much believe in the position you occupy today, we continue to pray that God almighty will continue to increase your wisdom to drive this country to its destination,’’ he said.
The high point of the ceremony was signing of registers and presentations of documents on reforms so far made to the youth group. (NAN)
