The National Chairman, New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam has advised the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to prioritize the welfare of the security agents operating in the country if he hoped to get the best out them.
Aniebonam who was speaking in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos on Monday stated that once the government take adequate responsibility of the officers in terms of the welfare of the officers and men of any of the agencies, they would go work.
According to him, “Don’t forget that their own children go to the same institution as yours and they need to pay. So, when they have a lot of problems, they cannot pay their children’s school fees and what have you, what do you expect from them?”
“So, government must first take cognizance of their welfare and must make sure that things are properly done because ideally, these are people that will enforce the law because the society is about enforcing the law. Once you enforce the law and things will move and Nigerians are law abiding people. So, this is important”.
Aniebonam who is also the founder, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) identified the problem in the country as having to do with the enforcement of the regulations adding that the government needed to enforce the regulations while taking into consideration the social welfare of the officers so as to get the best from them.
He further opined that for the new administration in the country to succeed, Nigerians must play their roles effectively as according to him, it was not about Buhari.
“So, it is Nigerians who sought for change, who voted for change that will come about the change. If you narrow it down to the ports arena, then we will be looking at the relevance or otherwise as you may wish the need for compliance to import regulations and extant laws. That is the change we will be looking at”
“We will be looking at the people respecting the laws, those who have the oversight function should ensure that like the concessionaires should adhere to the agreement. The concept of concessioning the ports is to bring about efficiency and professionalism, the productivity should increase and therefore what do you get out of this? It is that the terminal operators must be supervised to see that they do what they are supposed to do”, he said.
