Three Nigerians, Nelson Okoronkwo, Muhammad Ahmad and Ikenna Nweke have bagged the 2021 Public Service Integrity Awards.

Nelson Okoronkwo is the Deputy Director, Legal, in the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture while

Muhammad Ahmad is Assistant Commander of Narcotics in the

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)  as  Ikenna Nweke is a PhD student from Imo State, studying in Japan.

Okoronkwo was recognised for his consistent acts of integrity in the different ministries where he served and is a committee member on fertilizer distribution that led to the recovery of billions of naira from racketeers with collaborators within the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

He was credited to have reported corrupt practices that led to the Ogoni cleanup investigation in the Federal Ministry Environment.

As Committee Chairman on Illegal Recruitment in the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, the Deputy Director facilitated the detection and removal of over 3,000 fake employers from the Service, thereby saving the government millions of naira in terms of salaries and emoluments.

The NDLEA officer, Ahmad, was recognised for demonstrating the highest ideals and standards of the public service in the discharge of his responsibilities.

Also a recipient of the Chairman/Chief Executive Award for Outstanding Performance and Integrity, Ahmad recently recovered and declared to his Agency the sum of 24,500 USD offered to him as bribe by a drug baron to compromise an investigation of 27.950 kg of cocaine, worth billions of naira

That was even as Nweke, the Nigerian PhD student in Japan founded a wallet containing a very large amount of money and other valuables and returned it to the Japanese police.

He declined 10 per cent of the money offered to him as a reward.

The Nigerian, who joined the event virtually from his base in Japan, was recognised for his act of ‘‘honesty and integrity,’’ by the President.

On Nweke, President Muhammadu Buhari who declaring open, the 3rd National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in the Public Sector, today, November 30 said: “I am also happy to note the ICPC special award to Ikenna Steve Nweke, a Nigerian Ph.D student from Imo State studying in Japan.

‘‘He has done Nigeria proud in far-away Japan by displaying traditional Nigerian values of honesty and integrity and returning a wallet containing a very large sum of money and other valuables to the police.

‘‘He also declined 10% of the money found as a reward offered to him.

‘‘I join the ICPC in declaring him ICPC CITIZENS ANTI-CORRUPTION VOLUNTEER GROUP ICON.

‘‘He is indeed an icon and a beacon for our youths. I also congratulate all those to be awarded the ICPC Certificate of Integrity through their agencies.’’

The President warned that his administration would not hesitate to punish Heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that fraudulently present new projects as ongoing projects in the budget.

“We reduced the cost of governance by maintaining our promise to complete abandoned or ongoing projects commenced by previous administrations and have ensured that MDAs do not put forward new capital projects at the expense of ongoing projects.

‘‘Government has, however, noted from the activities of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) that some MDAs have devised the fraudulent practice of presenting new projects as ongoing projects.

‘‘Necessary action and sanctions will continue against the heads of such errant MDAs. I am confident that ICPC will continue to maintain the vigilance required of her by the ICPC Act in this regard.”

The President described the summit with the theme “Corruption and Cost of Governance: New Imperatives for Fiscal Transparency,” as auspicious.

He recalled the negative impacts of unnecessary cost of governance and an opportunity offered by the event for critical stakeholders to offer suggestions on ways to further reduce the cost of governance and promote transparency and accountability in government expenditure.

‘‘I am delighted that the Legislative and Judicial arms of government are also under focus on managing the cost of governance because government is a collective and is not the business of the Executive branch alone.

‘‘On 19th August 2020, the Federal Executive Council adopted the National Ethics and Integrity Policy which I launched on 25th September 2020.

‘‘I am delighted that some public officers continue not only to demonstrate the core values of ethics, integrity and patriotism but have been identified for their sterling anti-corruption disposition in their workplace.”

Benue State people have regretted having Samuel Ortom as their governor.

“It is disheartening that Governor Ortom has neither been able to initiate any development project nor pay basic salaries, and pensions and gratuities of retirees.”

In a statement today, November 30 in Abuja, Tiv Youth Council Worldwide (TYCW), a Benue-based socio-cultural group, said that the governor has consistently ignored counsel to partner with relevant Federal Government agencies to attract development to the state but continue to dish out verbal insults to perceived enemies.

In the statement, the president of the group, Mike Msuaan said: “we have appealed to Governor Ortom several times to please concentrate on governance and entrench good governance and responsible leadership in the state.

“We have wondered why development has continued to elude us under his leadership, especially at a time states, created several years after Benue, have moved with the speed of light.

“We have consistently tasked Governor Ortom to develop the state and to create an enabling environment for the people of Benue to excel.”

The group alleged that governor Ortom has not conducted any employment exercise since he came to office in 2015.

“In 2019, he promised to employ 5,000 teachers; lately, he reduced the number to 2,000, but this has remained in the realm of wishful thinking.

“The governor has refused to pay workers and pensioners in the state for several months,’’ the TYCW added.

It said that since he was elected governor, Ortom had not built any industry to meaningfully employ the people of Benue.

“We have continuously appealed to him, to liaise with relevant Federal Government institutions to rebuild, resettle and return Internally Displaced People to their ancestral homes.

“This appeal fell on deaf ears. We have consistently reminded him that even in Borno which is almost a war zone, GovernorbZulum has been resettling his people.

“Today, we are sad that the governor has moved from lack of development to verbally dishing out insults.

“We have listened to an audio recording in some national dailies and online media that while inaugurating a church building recently, the governor said his people drank from 9 a.m.

“He said in the audio recording that Tiv people used to go to bed from beer parlours only to wake and insult him (the governor).

“So far, there has been no rebuttal from the government.

“The response from the Chief Press Secretary, Mr Nathaniel Kyur, was a face-saving and damage control blunder in which he accepted that Gov. Ortom made the comment but it was targeted at APC members.

“We join well-meaning Nigerians to strongly condemn such use of derogatory words on the good people of Benue and demand an immediate and unreserved apology from the governor.”

The group said that such demeaning reference to a people should be condemned by all well-meaning people and called on the Benue Traditional Council and religion institutions to call the governor to order.

“Right now, we are dealing with the youth population and we have not been able to provide solutions to some of the complaints in the country.”
These were the words of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, at the launching of a book in Abuja yesterday, November 29.
The book, written by Dr Manassah Jatau, a retired Deputy Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, is titled, “A Sociology for Medical Practice.”
Boss Mustapha, who spoke mainly on the rapidly growing population in the country, said that Nigeria’s population projection is scary.
He stressed the need for the government to put in place control measures to keep the country’s population growth in check.
“Given one or two decades from now, Nigeria will become the third most populous country, coming after China and India.
“There is an urgent need for us to begin to plan for this increase.”
The SGF appreciated the author for his deep insight into issues of leadership in determining the effectiveness and efficiency of organizations, especially in physical and economic wealth, as captured in the book.
Boss Mustapha emphasized the need to develop Nigeria’s traditional medicine, adding that it would create employment, develop the nation’s pharmaceutical products, as well as improve its economy.
“There is also need for the introduction of traditional medicine. It will reduce the level at which Nigerians visit other countries for medical treatment.”
Source: NAN.