Lagos Gets New Federal Commissioner for Public Complaints Commission

• Promises to Reposition the Commission to Serve Public Better

The Lagos State Office of the Public Complaint Commission (PCC), now has a new Federal Commissioner, Hon. Abimbola Ayo-Yusuf.

Ayo-Yusuf, who replaced the former Commissioner, Mr. Funso Olukoga, having served two terms, has now fully resumed duty.

His resumption followed the last week inauguration of the Chief Commissioner, Hon. Chile Igbawua Zasha and 37 other Federal Commissioners representing the 36 States of the Federation, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki in Abuja.

The PCC, is an organ of the Government, set up to redress complaints lodged by aggrieved citizens or residents in Nigeria, against administrative injustice.

Better known as the Ombudsman, the PCC is one of the few agencies, supervised by the National Assembly directly by law.

The new Commissioner, AyoYusuf, promised to reposition the Commission to serve public better.

“My primary mission, is for everybody to know personally that this Commission does exist, and that I as the new Commissioner, I have come to help the average man, the masses, to fight for justice, and we are going to do this with speed, solving people’s problems faster than before. That’s what I want to guarantee.

“Thank God, the world has moved on to social media. We intend to use a lot of social network, to get across to the people, so that they can understand that we actually exist, and we are broader than Police Complaints Commission and some other Commissions around. We, apart from the injustices that we fight against in Ministries, Parastatals, States, Companies, we also fight for the citizens individually as well, especially where we feel the issues have not been addressed properly. In the coming weeks, we are going to move out.

“We are under the National Assembly (NASS) and so, any enforcement we cannot do, we will go back there, and get the power for proper enforcement from there, because that’s where the power comes from, in order to get such agreements implemented according to the their terms and as agreed.

“My predecessor, Funsho Olukoga, did a lot, and I intend to continue where he stopped, even though there was paucity of funds. We have approached the Chief Commissioner and the House, and they have decided to fund us more. So, we are going to do more than Olukoga did, and do better.

“I intend to get assistance from several institutions as well, including the Governor of the State, to make our job easier. We can pay courtesy visits to them, and get some assistance from them, that would assist us to carry out our duties. We need logistics to move out to the grassroots, because we know that not everybody is on social media. We need assistance to be able to reach out to the grassroots, to talk to them one on one, to make them realise that the Commission is actually for them, and not for the big man. I intend to arrange staff seminars, to train and keep retraining them, and let them know what the public is expecting from them.

“Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), is the traditional way of resolving disputes. We depend so much on that, but we lack enforcement. That is why, we are different from law courts. That is the difference, between the Public Complaints Commission and the law courts. It has been a limitation for this office, unless something is done about the Bill before the National Assembly”, he said.