Precious Ugwuzor reports on ongoing transformational efforts by Mr. James Sunday, former Nigeria Immigration Service national PRO, who is at the helm of affairs as Comptroller of Bayelsa Command
In the Bayelsa Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mr James Sunday, who is comptroller, is bent on transforming the command.
The former NIS national Police Relations Officer, now Comptroller of Immigration Service, Bayelsa State Command, is bent on his quest to leave indelible mark in the sands of time.
Immediately he took over from Comptroller Ngozi Odikpo, who was transferred to Anambra State Command, as Comptroller, he hit the ground running, after promising to live up to the standard set up by the Service under the leadership of Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, and that of the Comptroller of Immigration Service, Mr. Isah Jere Idris.
He is taking public relations to the state by running all inclusive administration, and extending olive branches to other sister agencies, and the people of Bayelsa State. He kickstarted his PR experience on February 6, 2022, when he was admitted into the State Security Council Monthly Security Meeting, Chaired by the Executive Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri.
As a PR personality, he observed the NIS service week 2022 , in a grand style,with the the theme: “Excellent Service Delivery A Panacea For Corruption”. The event was flagged off by the Comptroller General Isah Idris Jere,at the Service Headquarters, Abuja, on the 14th day of February 2022.
After the service week, he paid visits to Commander SD Atakpa, NNS SOROH; Nigeria Police Force, Bayelsa State Command; Mayor of Yenagoa Local Government Area, to the Commandant, Christiana Abiakam-Omanu, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, Bayelsa state Command, the Federal Road Safety Corps, the Nigeria Correctional Service, Bayelsa State Command,the NDLEA, Bayelsa State Command, the Airforce Commanding Officer, A A Adekunle , and the Nigeria Immigration Service, Bayelsa state Command, the National Human Right Commission and other places.
On February 8, he graced the first Ibom Air inaugural flight at the Bayelsa State International Airport, which coincided with his official tour.
Sunday, equally met with strategic stakeholders; hoteliers, and members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) to sensitise them on Immigration Regulations 2017.
The astute officer also marked the International Women’s day while celebrating with their female counterparts, he urged them to cement good working relationship with their male counterpart.
However, James who is the pride of NIS , motivated the women officers of the service when he promised to open Crèche for female nursing personnel . The gesture according to him, was for nursing female officers/ mothers to take care of their babies, and guarantee no lost in working hours.
“The gesture according to the command will also reduce the stress experienced by the mothers of such children, between the ages of 1 to 3 years, who may need such intervention at a close range, while performing their duties optimally”.
According to the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ibeinmo-Cookey Ebitimitula, “the effort is in collaboration with the office of the Mayor of Yenagoa City Local Government Council.
Comptroller Sunday on assumption of duty discovered that many of the female staff are nursing mothers, a factor that get them distracted from their jobs.
The PRO quoted Sunday as saying: “Since my assumption to office, I discovered that many of our female staff are nursing mothers, while some few are at various stages of pregnancy, it occurred to me to find a solution to constantly taking permission to leave the office to carry children from nursery Crèche schools, without coming back even when they have serious assignments to accomplish.
“He noted that the desire to reduce the burden of running helter-skelter prompted the move and with the support of the Mayor of Yenagoa City Local Government Council, Nimizo Orouoaye, and council members some materials were deployed for the comfort of the children, and the happiness of mothers whose children are at reach and under proper supervision.
“CIS Sunday, further stated that the Crèche that is presently meant to serve Nursing and Nursery aged children will soon upgrade to primary school with the approval of relevant authorities. He noted that some of the NIS staff with education background and passion for children would be drafted to take care of the children and a nurse would be deployed to take care of the facility and the crèche”.
Sunday within a short period of time, and with the Commands News Bulletin, recently launched forming the archival base for relevant information on the service activities in Bayelsa and re-defining the roles played by NIS in the security architecture of Bayelsa State and the nation in general, the bulletin,captured the essence for inter-agency collaboration in fighting crimes and criminality by all the security forces in Bayelsa State.
The Command Comptroller defined the purpose of the News Bulletin as a tool for uniting the services, and informing the public of developmental activities of the Command and stewardship report for the service leadership.
Also , he engaged the services of Tinbird Nigeria Limited, a human capital development consulting firm to train the Officers and Men of the Command. The training with the theme, “What Next After Retirement”, a topic that elicited thoughts and reasoning of both the new entrants and the old officers and men.
The training according to the command, was tailored towards empowerment using, “farming entrepreneurship in snail farming, cassava, rabbits, and other seafood that is predominant in Bayelsa as a platform.
“The beneficiaries of the training who are officers and men of the command, were encouraged to live within their earnings as salary earners, but to empower their spouse be it male or female depending on who works with the NIS.”
The Resource Person, Abigail Bokoyeibo, a learning development expert, enterprise development service provider and public speaker on different platforms in Nigeria and the United States of America, who passionately spoke on work, ethics and cashing on investing their salaries through savings and investment to enhance their status while still in active service.
Emphasis was laid on family empowerment through investment in hairdressing and barbing saloons, fashion design and tailoring services, sales of commercial water from boreholes, Point of Sale (POS) services for their family especially the unemployed, apart from farming enterprise which is permitted for employees of the government.
In attendance were Queen Sese Ayoro, Business Development Manager, Tinbird Culinary School, Honourable Bibian George of the Centre for Women Development, Ekeremor and Students of Tinbird Culinary School, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
Sunday during interactive session with the Brigade Commander 16th Brigade , Brigadier -General Yakassa , informed that their meeting would cement existing relationship and bridge the gap in intelligence gathering and sharing, joint operation where necessary and other national duty ,where the NIS Bayelsa State Command would have course to work side by side the Brigade.
The Brigade Commander, who did not waste time in appreciating the initiative and leadership skills exhibited by the Comptroller of NIS in the state in the on- going Operation Flush out of Irregular Migrants in Bayelsa State, which according him has reshaped the security architecture of the state with respect to removing elements that would have constituted security menace and concern due to their diverse and several involvements in unregistered businesses.
He hinted that usually undocumented migrants often go unnoticed and should there be any crime involving any of such elements, they would disappear without a trace.
The exercise, the Bayelsa NIS Comptroller, said has taken care of such fear as ,”everyone apprehended is interviewed, documented and those with genuine cases are treated on merit while those with high degree default are penciled for easing out through an approved entry points closest to where they came into the country from and where they entered through an approved entry point. They are to pass through same route after documentation at the point of exit.”
This exercise, he reiterated was a routine one and that the command hoped to keep the tempo of checking out for the irregular migrants on a continuous basis until the state is rid of such.
He said that every non-Nigerian must play by the rule of law governing their legal stay as regular migrants to perform their legitimate businesses and reside as registered migrants on the e- migrants’ platform of the NIS Bayelsa State.
