Babatunde Irukera, vice-chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), has called on public servants to be more efficient in their service delivery.

Mr Irukera made the call at a lunch seminar organised by the Bureau of Public Reforms (BPSR) on Tuesday in Abuja.

The seminar was titled ‘Customer as King: Roles of FCCPC in Ensuring Delivery and Satisfaction of Nigerian Customers’.

Mr Irukera said the country would be better for all if public service workers diligently carry out their responsibilities.

“We are all public servants, and we must see our own roles in the things that aggravate us because if we do not, it will be all motion and no movement,” said Mr Irukera. “If we keep looking for the problem on the outside without realising that there is a bigger piece of it on the inside, and the vast solution is on the inside, we will serve our time and leave, and we will not make the space better.”

Mr Irukera added that the complaints often received by FCCPC about poor services of some private companies were even worse in the public service.

“Such complaints are hypocritical because many public servants do not give what they demand of others in their different institutions. Do we recognise that the grievances we feel and expect them to address are exactly how the nation and its people feel about us and what our responsibilities to them are?” the FCCPC boss stressed. “Whether as regulators, law enforcement or policymakers, why demand what you do not give?”

He reminded public service workers that they have a social contract to serve the country diligently.

BPSR director-general Dasuki Arabi said, “As the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, we firmly believe in the power of collaboration and partnership among government agencies.

“Our commitment to interagency cooperation is rooted in the understanding that, together, we can tackle challenges more effectively and innovate for the greater good of our fellow citizens.”

(NAN)