By Chinedu Obike
As Nigeria celebrates its 60th independence anniversary, security agencies in the country have been called upon to rededicate themselves to their core mission and justify the confidence reposed in them.
The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola made the call while speaking at the second edition of the Quarterly Performance Peer Review Assessment of the Ministry and its Services held at the Headquarters of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), Airport Road, Abuja.
“Make no mistake about it – the public we serve are watching us and are doing their own assessment based on how our services have impacted them. The set up will mean nothing to them if our services disappoint them,” he said.
The Minister said that the primary aim of the Peer Review Assessment was to make it the springboard for the fulfillment of the Ministry’s mandate with a view to ensuring a remarkable progress towards the success of President Muhammadu Buhari- led Administration.
According to him, the Federal Fire Service (FFS) is to see itself as an Agency to avert and mitigate disasters, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) is to provide security through complementing the efforts of other security agencies in the country. Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) is saddled with the responsibility of manning the nation’s borders, by making smooth the entry of those genuine entrants and preventing the bad ones, while the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) he added, is to keep custody of offenders and return them to society as better persons, useful to themselves and their neighbours.
The Minister said that, it is the extent to which the Services performed these responsibilities that the public will judge them. “I am asking us, for this reason, to make our core mission the locus of performance assessment. This will refocus us and make our performance more poignant and tangible,” he said.
Aregbesola commended officers and men of the Ministry and its Services for the efforts being put in place in fulfilling the mandate of the ministry and also in keeping with the deliverables set by the Buhari Administration, while charging them to redouble their efforts for better and more quality Service to Nigerians.
The Minister who lauded the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Georgina Ekeoma Ehuriah, for her well-thought-out administrative stewardship in the Ministry said further that the main thrust of the Performance Review was to reiterate the fact that the Agencies under the Ministry should not see themselves as pure bureaucracy, but for specific service delivery to the public in which the performance of their duties could make a life and death difference to the Nigerians.
Earlier in her remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Ehuriah pledged the commitment of the staff towards ensuring the full implementation of the Programmes, Policies and Projects of Government, in line with the mandate of the Ministry.