Director’s Statement

• Establishing SERVICOM, then President Obasanjo said: Service is what we offer ourselves for…. We were … well aware of the unpleasant manifestations of the appalling standard of service delivery in the country… Is it any wonder then that people lose their trust, as they inevitably do? We are here to begin the process of change, in this regard (The SERVICOM Book, p.1). • Obasanjo also said: This Retreat is to assert our ownership of the initiative [SERVICOM]: it is our concept, and we accept full responsibility for driving it to a successful end. It is also the message of leading from the front in the battle to sanitise our system… it is THE MESSAGE OF THE LEADERSHIP THAT THE NIGERIAN PEOPLE can trust (The SERVICOM Book, p.3, emphasis added). • Following the SERVICOM Book, pp 9&10, the functions of SERVICOM Unit and Focal Officer are explicitly spelt out. Basically, they are to support the UNN leadership, at various levels, to ensure and engender efficient service delivery and help hinder service failures, which bedevils public institutions in Nigeria. • SERVICOM is the engine for service delivery programme. The SERVICOM Charter is the operational day-to-day Implementation Manual. It is mounted on the imperative to change the system of service delivery (The SERVICOM Book, p.7). In UNN, the VC, who is the Chairman, SERVICOM Committee, has directed the SERVICOM Unit to be anchoring this process through sensitization, mobilization and actionable suggestions to improve service delivery; always done with a team, not as individuals or a person. • All federal universities in Nigeria are required to domesticate SERVICOM. As a result, the UNN Senate approved our SERVICOM Service Charter and Complaints Policy. The VC has even taken a step further by sending the document to the Governing Council, emphasizing that it is home grown. Equally, the NUC and the Presidency have ratified the document for implementation in this University. • The UNN Service Charter describes the services provided by the University and how it can be performed within specified and achievable time frames. Similarly, information on how our customers can register their complaints whenever there is service failure is contained in the Charter (See p. 2). • The Charter requires that UNN provides quality teaching, community services and multi-disciplinary researches leading to the award of degrees and certificates. In line with SERVICOM philosophy, we are dedicated to achieving service delivery in a “timely, fair, honest, effective and transparent manner” (See Charter pp. 5&6). • The University of Nigeria undertakes to monitor performance against the Service Charter through the following means: – Monthly Performance Appraisal [MPA] meetings of the Local Service Frontliners. – Bi-monthly collation and analysis of complaints and feedback by SERVICOM Unit. – Quarterly Performance Appraisal [QPA] meetings of the SERVICOM Committee and the Focal Officer (See Charter, p.8). • This University pledges its obligations to address all complaints and suggestions from our customers as soon as they are received and will handle any complaints through The SERVICOM Help Desk (See Charter, p. 10); thereby preventing externalization of local issues to outside bodies. • A procedure (see Charter pp. 11&12) has been established to support this Policy, and to give clear guidance on how to handle complaints. The procedure manifests on four (4) levels, viz.: i) SERVICOM Unit, Office of the Vice-Chancellor; ii) The ProChancellor & Chairman, UNN Governing Council; iii) The Executive Secretary, NUC; and iv) SERVICOM Complaints Manager, The Presidency. • Thus, SERVICOM in UNN is the administration’s project being assiduously driven by the VC, through the sagacious pedestal of the UNN SERVICOM Committee. The membership speaks volumes as it fully represents this University’s core leadership. • The directive of the VC to the SERVICOM Unit is to institutionalize SERVICOM in UNN. Therefore, there is no place for personalizing it, as this or that individual’s thing. As a result, the SERVICOM project here is to implement our Charter by assisting and supporting our various officials do their job – not take over their job, such as ensuring that staff under them come to work regularly and efficiently attend to their duties. Again, the SERVICOM Guild members which the Deans, Directors and HODs nominated and were inaugurated by the VC could support in that direction. Teamwork is the key. Therefore, concerned officers are to manage their Attendance Registers properly to enhance control and accountability. • Finally, the books reveal that SERVICOM (please interpret as SERVICOM Committee and Guild membership) helps to ensure that there are no service failures by providing sensitization and support to the officers concerned, or where there is apparent or likely service failures, report same to the appropriate authorities, with suggestions if possible, for remediation. Thus, SERVICOM cannot take over officials’ jobs (while they take the salary). Teamwork, partnership and mediation are what SERVICOM offers for efficient service delivery in all federal universities. That is why in other federal universities, SERVICOM is involved in the management of examinations, matriculation, convocation, registration, and other events as a constant reminder that service delivery is what the whole thing is about. UNN has enormous capacity to maintain its exemplary character and continue to excel in this direction. After all, we are the Nigerian university.