There was pomp and pageantry at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre Abuja as Mary Uduk, Acting Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC), Ahmed Bobboi, Executive Secretary, Petroleum Equalisation Fund( PEF) and Dr. Yemi,Kale, Statistician General of the Federation Thursday night bagged BusinessDay Excellence in Public Service Award 2018.
Also, Usman Gur, Managing Director/CEO Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Ahmed Kuru, Managing Director/CEO, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCOM), Mohammed Haruna, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Yusuf Kazaure, Managing Director/CEO Galaxy Backbone, Mohammed Kari, Commissioner/CEO, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Adebayo Somefun, Managing Director/CEO, National Social Insurance Trust Fund(NSITF), Abdullahi Mukhtar, Chairman/CEO, Nigeria Hajj Commission (NAHCON) and Umaru Ibrahim, Managing Director/CEO, National Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) bagged the award.
Other awardees include; Ahmed Dangiwa, Managing Director/CEO, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Chidi Izuwah, Director General/ CEO, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission(ICRC), Isa Ibrahim- Pantami, Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA) Jalal Arabic, Permanent Secretary, State House, Mohammed Sani, Clerk of the National Assembly and William Fowler, Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
Umaru Kwairanga, Sarkin Fulanin Gombe and Chairman of the occasion in his opening remarks said the public sector that the awardees are actively working to mould is the public sector that Nigerians have yearned for decades.
Kwairanga noted that the awardees were running a public sector that is professional, result oriented, merit driven and corruption free, a public sector that understands the development challenges the country face as a nation and is proactive and forward looking in offering solutions to those challenges.
He stated that awards such as these are recognition of outstanding service and also serve as motivation to the winners, the nominees and those yet to be nominated to strive harder in the future, saying the awards would ginger public servants and promote Public service excellence as well as lead to better outcomes for all citizens impact by the work of the public sector.
“There are few sectors that compare to the public sector in terms of visible impact on the lives of a great number of citizens. That is why I find it puzzling that there is a paucity of opportunities to celebrate the public servants who make such a difference in our lives.
“It is also why I am delighted to be asked to chair the second Business Day Excellence in Public Service Awards. The public servants that we have gathered to honour here today have been improving our world and facilitating our daily lives through the policies they formulate and implement and the services that their organisations provide and it is important that we periodically recognise the outstanding work that they do”, he said.
Frank Aigbogun, Publisher/ CEO BusinessDay Media in his welcome address BusinessDay conceived the Public service award to celebrate performance and commitment of those in public responsibility and commended the dedication of the awardees to get a world class service delivery for the people of Nigeria.
“We were very meticulous in analysing the dignitaries for these awards and our team of analysts and researchers,who were joined by a review committee vigorously examined the various nominations that we have before arriving at a list of award winners this evening.
“I can assure you that coming up with the list of the award winners is not an easy task given Nigeria’s large public sector and competing positions of leaders of these department and agencies of government”, he stated.
James Kwen, Harrison Edeh & Owede Agbajileke Abuja
