By Chukwudi Asoya / Magnus Emuji
SERVICOM came into being in Nigeria in 2004 as a presidential initiative aimed at ensuring that services are rendered to the customers as quickly as possible and in a satisfactory manner. The customers here connotes the recipients of such services, those who are deserve effective service delivery. And it could be you and I as the case might be.
It means an acronym for Service Compact, while the word ‘ Compact’ here implies a formal agreement between two or more people.
In all human engagements and activities, whenever a truce is reached, that is an agreement concerning doing the right thing as expected, anything short of that could be considered to be at variance with the agreement and it should be resisted with all sense of politeness though. Therefore, Service Compact seeks to guide service providers against trampling on the rights of every individual. You must strive to ensure that in carrying out your service delivery, you must take the beneficiaries into consideration.
However, SERVICOM, which was initiated in 2004, as aforementioned above, under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as an outcome of a two day Special Presidential Retreat on Service Delivery with the president, ministers , special advisers, presidential aides and chief executives of major extra-ministerial departments and parastatals .
In order to improve on its already existing effective service delivery in the state, Delta keyed into the initiative as a deliberate strategy to ensure that its service providers add the needed value to governance through the implementation of its policies and programmes so as to achieve results.
Ever since the immediate past Special Adviser to the Delta State Governor on SERVICOM and Labour Relations, Comrade Mike Okeme, came on board as the pioneer boss of the office, the state had continued to witness tremendous improvement in the area of service delivery.
The office, under the watch of the former Special Adviser to the State Governor on SERVICOM and Labour Relations, Comrade Mike Okeme, an iconic labour leader, has been synergising with the office of the State Head of Service (HOS), Mr. Reginald Bayoko, Mni, to successfully achieve its mandate.
It could be recalled that Delta, is one state that is privileged to be enjoying industrial harmony between the labour and government. This is made possible as a result of the proactiveness of Comrade Mike Okeme as well as the friendly disposition of the Okowa led administration.
Born on August 1, 1956 in his country home, Aragba, Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State, Comrade Okeme, is universally adjudged to be a very committed, diligent, patriot, productive and loyal labour leader who had continued to prove himself as a true role model for the Nigerian youth and a consummate labour activist that believes so much in the maxim of developmental and proactive unionism.
Again, one is not unaware of the fact that Comrade Okeme was a two term chairman of the Nigeria Civil Service Union, Delta State Council and a two term chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) as well as Paul Harris Fellow (PHF) of Rotary Club of Asaba. He is also a philanthropist who derives great joy in touching the lives of the people, especially the less privileged.
Very recently, the Delta State SERVICOM and Labour Relations, organised a two day workshop for Directors and SERVICOM officers in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Speaking to journalists shortly after the two-day capacity building workshop,held at Labour House , Asaba, some participants including Comrade (Evangelist) Augustine Akpede ,Mr. Festus Oki and Mr. Chukwunalu Okuoyibo, commended Delta State Governor, Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa for his administration’s consistent strengthening of the capacity of civil servants through training and retraining.
The respondents also lauded the contributions of the immediate past Special Adviser to the Governor on SERVICOM and Labour Relations, Comrade Mike Okeme, describing him as an accomplished administrator. Comrade (Evangelist) Akpede and Mr. Chukwunalu Okuoyibo, said that the former governor’s aide played critical role in ensuring industrial harmony among labour organisations and affiliate unions in the state.
They described Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as a labour friendly governor and appealed to him to reappoint Comrade Mike Okeme as Special Adviser on SERVICOM and Labour Relations, saying that Comrade Okeme was meticulous and proactive at all times while discharging his duties as Special Adviser, just as they stated that he was very humane and carried the people along in the scheme of things.
Continuing, they said that the training would impact positively on their jobs, adding that such capacity building workshop was needed at all times to equip civil servants with the necessary tips to achieve effective service delivery thus excelling in their official assignments. The respondents, however, described the training as apt and should be sustained.
Earlier in his presentation entitled: ‘Public Service Delivery and Its Impact on Nation Building’, a management consultant, Mr. Eddie Amanam , noted that the essence of government was to serve the citizens’ needs in line with their expectations, adding that service providers should shun the habits of rendering poor services to the public for the interest of mutual benefits and accountability as well as credibility.
Amanam, said that government required adequate and robust information concerning the needs of the public in order to address them satisfactorily. He said that there should be no system failure, explaining that governance belonged to the people, even as the renowned management consultant reiterated that those at the helm of affairs were merely policy makers and that those implementing such government policies must be up and doing so as to get results.
Similarly, another resource person Mr. Clement Dogarae Stephen, stated that in public service, government needed to engage the citizens, stressing that government should initiate reforms, designed to enhance quality education. Mr. Stephen said that there should be indepth understanding of the needs of the customers that were being served.
He noted that there must be persistent interactions between the service providers and their customers for effective service delivery. He listed various drivers of the citizens’ satisfaction to include service delivery, time it would take the services to be delivered, information available to the customers to make decisions as well as empathy among others.
