Group Launches Awards to Boost Public Servants’Morale
Kayode Fasua
The Public Office Holders Association of Nigeria (POHAN), has begun an annual award programme aimed at encouraging healthy competition and boosting career prospects for all categories of public office holders.
Announcing the new move through a statement made available to THISDAY in Abeokuta, Ogun State, yesterday, the POHAN National Coordinator, Chief Moses Eseyin , said principally, the POHAN National Public Service Awards and Summits for which nominations had been opened since March 20, this year, “is to promote and reward innovation and excellence in public service, in support of the realisation of government’s agenda for effective service delivery”.
Eseyin, who is immediate past Special Adviser on Youth Empowerment, Sports and Students’ Affairs to Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, said the POHAN is the mouthpiece for public servants and political office holders in Nigeria, both past and present, and that it is a nonpartisan organisation that strives for a more effective government for the Nigerian people.
“It rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions that lead to a more effective and responsive public administration in Nigeria; and through an annual competition, the POHAN National Public Service Awards and Summits promote the role, professionalism and visibility of the public service, before the Nigerian people,” he disclosed.
He added that the proposed programme was also designed to celebrate the value and virtue of the public service to the community; highlight the contributions of public service in the development process, and recognise the work of public servants,
He stressed that such a reward culture would also encourage young people to pursue careers in the public sector.
As scandalous as it may appear for Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, to import petroleum products from Chad and Niger or any other country for that matter, it is the price that we have to pay for the mismanagement of the three refineries owned and operated by NNPC. It is also a cheaper alternative to truck petroleum products from our neighbours up north to northern Nigeria than to import products through the seaports in southern Nigeria and truck to the northern states. With this as an option, Nigeria will be killing two birds with one stone: Reducing the number of petroleum products trucks that crisscross the nation’s intercity highways and often enough cause devastating accidents, as well as insulating a section of the country from higher petroleum product pump prices while we wait for Mr. Aliko Dangote to complete the construction of his 650,000 barrels per day refinery in Lagos.
All in all, the immediate to long-term benefits of full deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector that includes nonsubsidization of FX to a particular operator, by far outweigh the initial inconvenience that will be experienced by Nigerians. For one, it will engender competition, encourage investment in the sector, and lead to the creations of thousands of job. Secondly, NNPC will no longer have to misappropriate revenue that should have accrued to the federation for the three tiers of government to cover its cost arising from under-recoveries. As NNPC begins to cut its losses from under-recoveries, it will be better placed to revamp the refineries, insofar as there is the will and sincerity of purpose among its leadership to fix the plants. Concomitantly, the advantage of having working refineries even at 50% of nameplate capacity will not just be limited to lower prices of petroleum products at fuel outlets, but to the FX market where there will be less demand for scarce dollars to import products for Nigeria’s domestic consumption. Most crucially, deregulation will usher in transparency and shut the doors firmly against the scams that characterised petroleum products supply and distribution for years.