It took less than six months since her appointment as the chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) by President Mohammadu Buhari for her to fish out the bad eggs sabotaging the system.
Investigations revealed that the vacuum created before the appointment of Dr Muheeba Dankaka and other commissioners led to the illegalities being unearthed at the commission.
While we continue to bemoan the decay and dysfunctions in the public service, we must be honest to acknowledge the sincere and genuine efforts of diligent people and patriots like Dr Muheeba Dankaka who has consistently been working hard and diligently over the past one year of her appointment to make a mark in government and justify her appointment by our President who has graciously shown that there is a place for the women at the table.
Thankfully, in her first year Dr Muheeba Dankaka has proved the President right despite the shenanigans of naysayers. Leveraging on her experience in the private sector which is her greatest asset coming into this job, she appreciates the importance of staff trainings and re-trainings.
She immediately explored measures in introducing a programme that would see staffs across cadres go on trainings for various professional trainings on a regular basis to enhance their suitability for the job and promote the overall efficiency of the commission.
The agency under her immediately wasted no time under her watch to go into talks with several organisations in the public and private sector that led to the regular trainings at the FCC a reality.
Muheeba Dankaka has restored a sense of purpose to the FCC which she was appointed to head just about a year ago, an achievement which can be hardly matched by her peers in other agencies of government.
She took steps in repositioning the agency from ab initio to become a model of public service efficiency, accountability, and transparency. This she achieved through her leadership sagacity by liaising with other agencies of government to explore opportunities for trainings, support and other forms of inter agencies engagements and cooperations.
The fruits of these initiatives has continued to bear fruits and accrue to the glory of the nation and the FCC in particular. Dr Muheeba Dankaka has within the past one year under review proven herself to be a noble ambassador for women in government, fastidiously assisting the President in his thankless job of restoring order and sanity to the public service weeding out the bad eggs and restoring the confidence of Nigerians in government and governance.
This serial entrepreneur has succeeded in bringing the private sector priority of efficiency and prompt service delivery to bear in the discharge of her duties as the helmswoman of this strategic national agency.
She has through her deliberate actions implemented at the FCC kept the decay and time wasting antics prevalent in the civil service out of the way in her dealings.
Dankakka makes sure that all files brought to her desk are attended to as promptly as they should without compromising attention to details.
As a team player, she without fails secures the inputs of subordinates who she needs to. Her commitments to make sure that every tasks is given the priority attentions it deserves. She does not shrink responsibilities nor get involved in idle politicking to the detriment of her official responsibilities.
For Muheeba Dankaka, working late hour to get the job done is a routine. Despite the media trial she went through which was intended to smear her hard earned reputation and subjected to make her loose touch with her vision for the FCC she was able to prove the amazon she is and manage the crisis and restore sanity to the commission which many agrees is now on the right track to delivering on its constitutional mandates.
She has continued to confound critics with her determination, poise and dedication to duty. She is taking everything in good stride and she is unafraid to make tough decisions and demonstrating clearly that the change mantra of the present administration is not a mere attempt at sloganeering.
The President, as her performances in the first term shows, did not make mistake when he appointed Muheeba Dankaka as the chairman of the FCC.in march 2020 to spearhead urgent reforms needed. Her appointment which has vividly showed that President Mohammadu Buhari understands the new direction of a new Nigeria, a nation where mediocrity will no longer find space. A nation where patriotic and incorruptible citizens will be harnessed to re-work a country that was totally ran down by successive uncaring and insensitive governments.
It is expected that as we approach the second year of her appointment as the chairman of the FCC we would witness more reforms at the commission that would pave way to the total implementation of the Presidents mandate and mantra of changes in the public service.
She has the will and the tenacity to usher in a new federal character commission and she would.
– Musa Wada writes from Abuja.
