NIS identifies poor service delivery, corruption as bane of Nigeria development

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has identified poor service delivery and corruption as the bane of Nigeria’s development.

The body assured that the problem could be tackled through the SERVICOM policy of the Federal Government.

The Comptroller of Immigration, Imo State Command, Mr Okey Ezugwu, stated this at a SERVICOM/Anti Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) Sensitisation and Enlightenment Workshop 2021, organised by NIS for its staff, at the Federal Secretariat, Owerri, on Wednesday.

Speaking on the theme of the workshop, “Zero Tolerance Approach to Corruption- A Pathway to Quality Service Delivery and Attitudinal Change”, Ezeugwu said that SERVICOM was established in Nigeria in 2004 to tackle the general state of service delivery in the nation and called for a concerted effort by all Nigerians to achieve its goal.

He identified issues to be tackled by SERVICOM to include lateness to work, poor service delivery, discrimination in staff promotion, eye service, bribery and lack of maintenance culture.

He said that the workshop, an initiative of the Comptroller General of Immigration Service, Muhammad Babandede and the Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, was to accentuate and underscore the importance of SERVICOM in service delivery.

Ezugwu said the NIS could not lag behind in the crusade as it remained the window through which the world sees Nigeria.

“The NIS remain the first contact for all visitors at our missions abroad, where they source their visas and at the frontiers(airports, seaports and land posts) at home,” he noted.

He said the service had put in place structures, legal and institutional to arrest poor service delivery and corruption which include emplacement of legal framework against corruption enshrined in the Immigration Act, 2015.

Others are the establishment of the ACTU and others such as the Task Force, Compliance and Intelligence Teams; SERVICOM Unit; Enforcement of the Staff Asset Declaration with the Code of Conduct Bureau and Deployment of technology to aid process and transparency.

The Immigration Comptroller said that the theme of the programme was apt with enriching sub-topics and called on the participants to put into practise all that they had learnt.

In his goodwill speech, the Assistant Chief Superintendent of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission ICPC, Mr Umar Nasir, noted that the fight against corruption should not be left in the hands of the ICPC and EFCC alone.

He called for a SERVICOM desk office in the NIS that would always liaise with the ICPC for proper service delivery.

Speaking, Mr Boniface Ejiogu, Director, Code of Conduct Bureau in Imo, said the office as captured in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria also engaged in the prosecution of corruption offenders.

He said the NIS as the first point of call of all immigrants should up their games in the fight against corruption.

Adding her voice, the State Director of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mrs Ngozi Ekeoba, expressed displeasure at some behaviours exhibited by most workers in the course of carrying out their duties and called for a change of attitude if Nigeria should move forward.

She commended the NIS for reviving the moribund SERVICOM policy of the Federal Government and urged the participants to take the lectures serious as SERVICOM, she said, is an important aspect of work rule.

The occasion was graced by some heads and representatives of sister agencies such as the Nigerian Army, Customs Service, Police, Correctional Service, Civil Defence and the National Orientation Agency.

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