Para-Military Agencies Get 12-Month Deadline to Deliver Reforms
The Federal Government has signed one-year performance contracts with para-military agencies, giving them a 12-month deadline to achieve 100 percent implementation of ongoing reforms.
The contracts, signed on Saturday at the end of a three-day retreat held at Zuma Rock Resort, Suleja, Niger State, cover the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Fire Service (FFS), and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), which now falls under the Ministry of Interior.
The reforms being pursued by the agencies include passports and visa processing, prison decongestion, inmate reformation in line with global standards, protection of critical national assets and infrastructure, and modernizing firefighting services.
Those who signed the performance contracts were Prof. Abubakar Audi, Commandant General of the NSCDC; Mr. Sylvester Nwakuche, Controller General of Corrections; and Mr. Samuel Adeyemi, Commandant General of the Federal Fire Service. The Comptroller-General of the NIS, Mrs. Kemi Nanna Nandap, could not sign as she was out of the country at the time.
Supervising the exercise, the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said the reforms must be pursued to their logical conclusion and delivered with 100 percent success.
Read Also:
“When we did the last retreat, we were at 62 percent. A year after, the Presidential Performance Assessment Initiative moved us from 62 percent to 85 percent. Now, our target is 100 percent. That is why I asked the Permanent Secretary to give me one reason why I need to change a winning team,” Tunji-Ojo said.
The Minister emphasized the importance of capacity building for personnel across the para-military agencies, stressing that it would bring out their best and align their work with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
He tasked the Director General of NIMC, Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, to continue reforms to establish a foundational identity system that is verifiable, authentic, and resistant to fraud.
On the Nigeria Correctional Service, Tunji-Ojo said reforms must prioritize genuine reformation of inmates, insisting that correctional centres should no longer be seen as places of condemnation.
He further challenged the agencies to not only deliver results that make the President proud but also build strong institutions that would endure beyond the current leadership.
Turning to the Federal Fire Service, the Minister said it must undergo a complete reorientation and expansion of scope.
“By this time next year, I want to see a Fire Service that will be custodian of emergency medical services, that will be liberalized, and that will allow for private sector participation. I want to see a Fire Service that can regulate and enumerate the sector, and one that will be judged by the number of assets saved,” he declared.
