It was pump and pageantry on Saturday in Lagos as the management and staff of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), took to the dancing floor and celebration galore of about 567 officials of the agency for their dedication, tenacity and strategic contributions in the observed progress of the agency over the years and 2017 in particular.
In her excitement laden address, the Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman commended all staff for their contributions and dedications within the ending year and assured them of good working relationship come 2018 and beyond.
On the 2017 long service award, Bala Usman said in spite of the outlook of the economy at the beginning of this year, “the management of the Authority set out certain goals and objectives for 2017 and we are grateful that we have attained most of the goals that we set for ourselves”.
“I want to on behalf of all of us who serve Nigeria at the NPA thank today’s 530 recipients of the long service awards, seven merit awardees and our 30 gallant fire service men and other crew members.
“On behalf of management, I want to thank you, our colleagues for keeping faith with us. While we are not at that place where we hope to be, we certainly are not where we started from. So I take the opportunity that this rare event presents to commend you for your commitment to service and all the sacrifices that you have all had to make.
“Someone said that the reward for hard work is more work, at the NPA, we know that this not the exact situation. There is of course always more work for us because we want to improve on our last performance, never resting on our oars, but can also assure you that welfare will continue to be of utmost priority to us.
“In the coming year, we assure that we will do our best to improve the condition of service of staff and raise the morale of our people.
“As we do this however, we would continue to lay a demand on you to set a standard of dedicated and committed service to maritime industry in particular and our nation in general.
“It is our desire to entrench accountability and efficiency signaled by smooth operations at all our port locations and improvement in the turnaround time of cargoes in the coming year, it is our desire to improve on the Executive Orders that we started implementing last year and reduction in the delay time at the ports.
“Even if this is a token, what we are doing today, should encourage all of us that Nigeria appreciates us and that we can indeed reap the reward of our loyalty to the country while in our lifetime.
“I pray that we will also find the grace to remain committed and faithful to this country so we can leave it a better place for generations after us”.
In his remarks, Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Mohammed Bello Koko who also hailed the staff, noted that the 2017 award is for those who have put in 25 years of dedicated service between December 31, 2014 to 2016.
He also enjoined staff yet to clock the age in service to continue to do their best in the ongoing reforms to reposition NPA.
