Scrap SERVICOM, No Longer Relevant – Abuja Based Lawyer, Olajengbesi

By Ayodele Oni

Service Compact With All Nigerians, (SERVICOM), an agency floated by the federal government to serve as ears and eyes for the people on activities of public establishments is no longer effective according to an Abuja based legal practitioner, Mr Pelumi Olajengbesi.

He has therefore asked the Federal Government to immediately scrap the agency on the ground that it has failed to serve its purpose.

The lawyer warned that the Federal Government should stop the tax payers money from being used to fund a moribund organization like SERVICOM, which he claimed, is no longer serving any useful purpose.

Addressing a Press Conference on the state of the Nigerian nation on Friday in Abuja, the legal practitioner recalled how in 2004, Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief with the emergence of “Service Compact With All Nigerians” popularly known as SERVICOM.

“The agency was established to promote effective, quality and efficient service to the people of Nigeria as well as empower public officers to be at alert to their responsibilities in providing improved, efficient, timely and transparent service across governmental ministries, departments, agencies and parastatals.

“The body is supposed to be a mechanism through which Nigerians can lodge complaints against tyrannical and errant public officers whose conducts fall below the standard required of a public and civil servants.

“Upon its take off, the body customarily had offices in all Federal Government agencies, taking complaints and ensuring efficiency, justice and fairness in all government agencies.

“Unfortunately, the body has now failed to uphold the purpose of its establishment. The agency no longer addresses complaints and has now become very ineffective.

“The organization leadership and modus oparandi has accordingly encouraged abuse of official duties on the one hand as well as precluding victims of these errant officers from accessing appropriate remedy within the administrative system.”

As a way out, the lawyer advised that the Federal Government should either inject a new lease of life into the agency or scrap it with immediate effect so as to stop wasting scarce resources on unproductive ventures.

The counsel lamented while the organization had gone down the drain, its workers have continued to draw salaries from the Federal Government coffers without doing anything to justify the pay.

“Go to virtually, all agencies of the Federal Government where SERVICOM is supposed to be feasible and productive by keeping service providers on their toes, you will hardly see their traces in anywhere whereas the workers are still drawing pays from the federation account.”