BPSR D-G calls for value addition in public service to transform Nigeria
By Bridget Ikyado
The Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Mr Dasuki Arabi has tasked public servants to work towards adding value to the lives of Nigerians.
He said this could be achieved through diligent service delivery targeted and building and transforming the nation and its people.
Arabi made the call in Abuja after receiving an award of excellence in Advocacy and Good Governance conferred on him by the League of Yoruba Youths.
He said that any delay in service delivery has negative multiplier effects on the public service, governance and the country.
“When there is service delivery failure at any point, people 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; our advocacy at all times is to see that public servants look at citizens as their customers.
“We must be seeing to be adding value to change how our people live,’’ he said.
The director-general said that the bureau was partnering with all the states in the country to establish public service reform bureaus.
“As a bureau, we are concerned about getting the federation units to key into these reforms,” he added.
He said that over 200 million Nigerians “are eagerly waiting for the government, local, state and federal, to improve their lives.
“This improvement can only come with the improvement of public service delivery.”
On the award, the director-general said it would spur the bureau to work harder, and urged all public servants to do more for the growth of the country.
“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.”
Earlier, the President-General, League of Yoruba Youths, Amb. Adediwura Adesina explained that they are a coalition of youth groups in the South West, with the Ooni of Ife as grand patron.
He said that the award was in recognition of Arabi’s exemplary leadership and passion for excellence.
Adesina said that the D-G has been diligent in executing the reform of the public service, 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,” he said.
“We want to honour 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 challenges you are facing on this.
“If it requires us to involve the National Assembly, civil societies and youth groups, we will do it to get the states to embrace the reform,” Adesina added. (NAN)