The 2014 National Productivity Day

This is to formally express my sincere appreciation for my nomination by the labour movement and selection by the National Productivity Centre under the leadership of Dr Paul Bdliya, Director for conferment of the NPOM award by His Excellency, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria, […]

This is to formally express my sincere appreciation for my nomination by the labour movement and selection by the National Productivity Centre under the leadership of Dr Paul Bdliya, Director for conferment of the NPOM award by His Excellency, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria, which took place on Thursday August 21, 2014 in Abuja.
Yours comradely is appreciative of this singular official recognition of my contribution to nation building. Special thanks to Chief  Emeka Wogu, Honourable Minister, whose ministry, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity processed the nomination and the Vice President, Muhammad Namadi Sambo who represented the president to confer 2014 NPOM awards on 15 other individuals  that included Alhaji Bukar Goni, former Head of Service and Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka as well as three organizations, namely Kano State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Katsina State Primary Health Care Development Agency and (National Emergency Management Agency ) NEMA.
I agree with President Goodluck Jonathan’s message on the day that stressed the need for all Nigerians to embrace high productivity in their respective professions to increase the country’s economic growth and development. Simply put: Nigeria can improve on its productivity. We must consume what produce, and produce what we consume and minimize import of what ordinarily we must produce. Productivity is an input/ output relationship.
Please let us address critical issues of electricity, policy environment, education and technology and of course security in order for us to raise the nation’s output. However there are even little critical success factors within our reach. The most precious input factor in productivity is time and time management. We parade highest number of public holidays on earth. Some of these holidays legitimize idleness rather than promoting decent work with respect to rest.
The challenge lies in stimulating institutional productivity. At the heart of this institutional productivity is the National Productivity Centre (NPC). “The need to improve the quantity and quality of goods and services available for consumption in Nigeria  as a means of increasing total wealth, is a task to which successive Nigerian Government have attached great importance . Between 1963 and 1985, series of panels and commission were set up by the various governments of Nigeria to work out the modalities for instituting productivity consciousness in the nation’s system. The 1963 MORGAN WAGES COMMISSION and the OKOTIE-EBOH TRIPARTITE AGREEMENT of 1964 recommended inter-alai, the establishment of a National Wage Advisory Council whose function was to advise Government on Wages Policy by keeping watch, not only over trends in wages and price but also in the general development within the economy. However, the ADEBO WAGES and SALARIES COMMISSION of 1970 recommended the setting up of the Productivity, Price and Income Board (PPIB) responsible for establishing a productivity scheme based on the formulation of guidelines on Productivity Improvement.
On its part, the Whitely Council in 1971 recommended the establishment of a Productivity Centre (NPC), while the UDOJI SERVICE REVIEW COMMISSION of 1974 stresses the importance of a result oriented public service in addition to stressing the need for increases productivity. The first concrete step to ensure the institution of an organized Productivity Movement in Nigeria was however not taken until 1987.  At a jointly organized conference in Ibadan, the Productivity, Prices and Income Board (PPIB), the Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) and the Federal Ministry of Labour recommended an organized Productivity Movement in Nigeria. This recommendation led to the change of name of the Ministry of Labour in 1979, to Ministry of Employment, Labour and Productivity. The year, 1979 also saw the lunched of the 4th Development plan, which specially named INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY as one of its eleven objectives. Consequently, at the inauguration of the National Productivity Committee by the then Honourable Minister of Labour, all the existing nineteen (19) states were given directives to establish similar Productivity Committees.
In 1984, the National Productivity Centre was formally inaugurated while the enabling Decree No. 7 now (Act CAP 272 of 1994) was promulgated in April, 1987, thus legally establishing the Centre as a federal parastatal. The history of the Centre will be incomplete without highlighting the roles of played by international organizations, such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP). These two provided the technical as well as financial assistance for the take-off of the Centre”. It should also be on record that President Goodluck Jonathan is the first president to productively sign the Productivity Order of Merit making the point that productivity improvement matters if Nigeria is indeed ready to be part of the leading economies soonest.