FG Gives Para-Military Agencies 12 Months to Deliver Reforms

The Federal Government has signed one-year performance contracts with para-military agencies, mandating them to deliver on key reforms within the next 12 months.

The contracts, sealed on Saturday at the close of a three-day retreat 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 operates under the Ministry of Interior.

In view of the agreements, the agencies are expected to implement sweeping reforms in areas such as passport and visa processing, prison decongestion, inmate reformation in line with global standards, safeguarding critical national assets and infrastructure and modernizing firefighting services.

Those who signed the performance contracts included 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, was absent as she was out of the country at the time.

Supervising the exercise, Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, charged the agencies to ensure 100 percent implementation of the reforms, stressing that their success would align with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

He emphasized the importance of capacity building to enhance the efficiency of personnel and specifically tasked NIMC’s Director General, Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, to sustain reforms toward a foundational identity system that is verifiable, authentic, and fraud-proof.

On the Nigeria Correctional Service, Tunji-Ojo maintained that correctional centres must evolve from being “places of condemnation” into genuine rehabilitation facilities. 

He also directed the Federal Fire Service to undergo a complete reorientation and broaden its scope of operations.

“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.