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… Charges new directors to make difference in N’Delta

By Davies Iheamnachor

The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, has stated that the commission under him wants to take up challenges and do things differently.

Ogbuku also charged newly promoted Directors of the commission to make a difference in the discharge of their duties and take NDDC to greater heights.

Ogbuku spoke at the closing session of a two-week course on Leadership and Performance Management for directing staff of the NDDC in Abuja, according to a statement signed by Pius Ughakpoteni, Director, Corporate Affairs, in Port Harcourt, yesterday.

He said the provision of quality services to the people of the Niger Delta is a collective responsibility and should be given priority, stating that the reason for sending the new Directors for training was to ensure they took the administrative knowledge acquired back to the commission in order to make a difference for the overall benefit of the region.

Ogbuku said: “We are supposed to be training and retraining our staff. This is just the beginning. I want the directors to take back the knowledge they have gained to others in the NDDC to better appreciate their roles and understand the expectations from them.

“We want to do things differently. We want to improve on our services. We want to take up challenges. We want to start with the staff first to ensure that all the staff are properly trained and they understand their roles.”

The NDDC MD encouraged the directors to utilise the experiences gathered from the training to improve the administrative processes in NDDC to ensure that things were done differently.

Ogbuku urged the directors to be mindful of their actions, adding that some of their actions could mislead their subordinates who are looking up to them as role models.

He said further: “As new directors, you need to understand your roles and understand your boundaries. You also need to understand your strengths and understand when to use them and when not to.

“You need to understand that you are public servants and not civil servants. So, these are some of the things we thought you ought to be equipped with.”

“Over the years we have seen a situation where the staff of the NDDC seem to act as politicians, but as directors who have been inducted into Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), I believe that you are not only going to be ambassadors of NDDC, you are also going to be worthy ambassadors of ASCON.”

Meanwhile, the Director General of ASCON, Mrs. Cecilia Gayya, in her address, said the  training was designed to make an employee more efficient and productive in the performance of their functions.

She said: “The programme was carefully designed and implemented to provide the needed knowledge, skills and capacity to adequately and promptly discharge their responsibilities and thus, make meaningful contributions towards the attainment of the mission and vision of the NDDC.”