When Governor Sheriff Oborevwori inaugurated Dr (Mrs) Mininim Oseji as the 12th Head of Service on April 10, 2025, expectations were high. Recognising her strong work ethic, sincerity of purpose and professionalism, he charged her to reorient the workforce in line with his quest to leave a legacy of a more efficient civil service. In turn, Dr Oseji ran with the charge and set an ambitious 100-day target to reposition the civil service. In this exclusive interview, the Head of Service sits across the table with the Sunday Editor of The Pointer, Patrick Mgbodo, to present her 100-day scorecard. Excerpt
On the day of your inauguration as the 12th Head of Service, you made several commitments and set out goals to achieve in your first 100 days. How far have you gone with the actualisation of these goals, having reached 100 days?
Generally, I want to say that we have not done badly. Almost every week, I look at the 20 activities that I have itemised to support the MORE Agenda of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, and then I am able to identify the ones I haven’t done yet. At my Thanksgiving on June 1, 2025, I had done 14 out of the 20 objectives, but I reflected on the ones I hadn’t done at the time.
So, we have initiated the 20th activity. I am sure a lot of people will be wondering what it was that took so long. It is a pilot mass transit programme for the transportation of the staff of the Office of the Head of Service to work. This is very close to my heart because I know that having a transport system for the workers motivates them a lot.
Among the 20 activities are physical and virtual meetings, which we are supposed to have four times a year with the permanent secretaries and heads of extra-ministerial departments. We have done the first one, and we are preparing for the second one. We also have the regular breakfast dialogue. We have done the first and second ones, which we used to celebrate the 100 days last Thursday.
Then, building the capacity of public servants in financial management. We have circulated the financial regulation document, which was one of the materials we used for the online quiz during the celebration of the Civil Service Week.
Then, we have also met with the state Accountant-General and the state Auditor-General to highlight some of the wrong practices in financial practices and to solicit their support. They promised that they would support. So, we need to follow up on that.
We are also going to get the permanent secretaries and heads of extra-ministerial departments from time to time and encourage them to go and look at their books. Don’t take it that it is the job of the Director of Finance and Accounts (DFA) to sort it out, or it is the job of the Internal Auditor. You (PS or Head of Extra-Ministerial Department) are the Chief Accounting Officer who signs, and you are automatically responsible for anything you sign for. So, you should regularly check the books and see that they are complying with the financial regulations.
We have encouraged civil servants to understand that the imprest is not an extension of their salary. So, you don’t just collect the imprest and tell Accounts to go and retire it on your behalf. No. For everything you spend the imprest for, you have to bring the receipt, and you will be surprised how accountable it becomes. Those are some of the things we have done to build capacity on financial management.
Then we have the implementation of the procurement law. I was present at the sensitisation programme that we had within my first month, and this was followed up during the breakfast dialogue, where an official from the procurement commission came to give a presentation on the Delta State procurement process. So, people had the opportunity to hear what is expected of them.
Then we had a meeting with the Director-General of Procurements and one of his officials as well as the Permanent Secretary/Solicitor-General (PSSG), Ministry of Justice and one of his officials too and also officials from the Office of the Head of Service on how we need to strengthen the implementation of the procurement processes, what kind of reforms do we need, what kind of staffing requirements and how do we go about that?
So, we are on track to make sure that everybody is in line. We will go further to do more sensitisation on it, and then we are going to support the commission to make sure that all the procurement officials out there in the field are well monitored; that they are given support by their various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Then we talked about the Ministry of Justice issuing contract agreements for all contracts awarded. The Ministry of Justice has given us two circulars to that effect, which we have shared with some relevant stakeholders. We have ensured that there is a reminder sent and that contracts that require agreements have those agreements. Many times, MDAs just award the contracts, and they do not follow up with information to the Ministry of Justice to prepare the agreement.
In-House Capacity Building: We have also done our first in-house capacity building in June, and we are planning for another one. It was very rewarding. This is a way we can get brilliant public servants to shine. The one who did it for us is an admin officer, and he talked about the Morning List, and then he gave us an explanation of how it is done. Even for those of us who are long in the civil service, we learned a lot of new things.
We are also happy to say that we requested the MDAs that were in the first breakfast meeting to bring some relevant information, which included the type of in-house capacity building programmes that they have, so that we will be able to know those who are complying with our recommendations.
Online Training Programmes: Before we had the quiz, we circulated, not just the financial regulations, but the public service rules, links to videos for webinars that we have held in the past, as well as presentations from the Breakfast Dialogue. So, when you send materials and then evaluate using a quiz, you are more or less training online. There are a lot of training programmes on YouTube, all you need to do is search.
Recently, we organised a training programme on agricultural homestead gardening, and we are going to put it on YouTube so that people can access such training programmes that have been done in the Office of the Head of Service and even elsewhere. One exposure to training is often not enough for a reform. It has to be consistent, and the resources to do the same thing every time are very limited. But putting these materials on YouTube, where it is accessible to the participants, is a cost-effective way, and we are very happy that people are keying into that.
Monitor and Evaluate Training Programmes in different ways through quizzes: We have put a pause considering a lot of proposals that are coming in. You say you want to give training on attitudinal change, for instance, how are we going to know that the attitude has changed? I had a meeting with a committee that submitted their report, and I asked if there is evidence of changes occurring in the MDAs. Do people come to work early, and when they do, are they ready to work or…? It takes time for people to know that new reforms are in place.
Strengthening the SERVICOM Ministerial Unit by organising regular monitoring visits and promoting the use of suggestion or complaints boxes. We are incorporating the SERVICOM Unit from some selected MDAs to join us in our monitoring. This is to enable us to get feedback. The first monitoring we did on May 28, I looked at the responses that people gave for coming late, and some of the responses were ‘’I went for a school run’’. That’s not a tangible response because you will always go for a school run. You know what time the school opens, and you know the time you are supposed to be in the office. So, it is for you to leave early. Another one said ‘’I was stuck in traffic’’. You know where the hotspots are, so if you want to beat the peak period, you have to leave early. A few said ‘’I have a headache’’
When we look at all these responses, it is for us to let people know that some of these excuses are not tenable and that they need to show evidence of change. If there is something that the government can do, we will do it. For instance, as it concerns health, there is a clinic located in the secretariat, so it would have been wise for workers in the secretariat to choose it as their healthcare provider.
One or two mentioned banks, and I think this is something that the government can do because when the secretariat was commissioned, we considered putting some banks there, but that has not yet happened. So, if we put some banks in the secretariat, it will help. We may have to look at the most popular banks for civil servants using empirical instruments, and then see how to get them to locate a branch in the secretariat.
Promoting Planning, Research and Statistics using the Ministry of Environment as an example: We have replicated some of those things, and that is why the DPRS are very important. I keep using this sentence to define my modus operandi ‘’I am evangelising my Jerusalem before I go out to Judea and Samaria’’. So, I have met with the Department of Planning, Research and Statistics in the Office of the HoS, and we have reviewed the organogram. We had to expand from three units, Planning, Research and Statistics, to four, including ICT.
We have discovered that with digitisation, ICT is going to become a very important component. We also found out that the human resources was such that there needed to be two units. So, we now have research, and we also have ICT, and we are encouraging other MDAs.
We have a couple of things that we are trying to get done, and then, like the ICT component for digitisation, we are going to be organising a Training-of-Trainers, and when we are done, the ICT unit will go to the various MDAs to do on-the-job training instead of gathering everybody in one place.
We have also talked about getting an annual operational plan for every MDA. We had that in the Ministry of Environment before I left (as PS), but in the Office of the HoS, we do not have it. So, we are doing the annual operational plan for the Office of the HoS and with that, we will encourage others to do even if it is for the remaining months of the year. Then in 2026, we will become more proactive about it.
Research: I have just interacted with a resource person who is going to facilitate a webinar on establishing research ethics committees in the public service of Delta State. So, hopefully, sometime in August we are going to have that. If people want to carry out research and they need ethical approval, they will know which of the MDAs they can go to.
Statistics: We are encouraging every MDA to have a statistics bulletin. I know that from time to time, the Ministry of Economic Planning calls for statistics from the various MDAs, but it is not only when you want to submit to Economic Planning that you should collate your statistics. You also need the statistics to know what you are doing, review your progress and so on.
By the time we do all these things, all the departments of planning, research and statistics will be vibrant and bubbling and not just focusing on procurement that they were originally known for.
Reinstating the Civil Service Week: Do I need to say more? It was all over the place, and we went back to the Gulf tournament, where I was pleasantly surprised to hear that we have been able to do what was last done about 15 years ago. So, I feel very honoured that I was divinely chosen by God to bring it back, and it was so exciting to do that. We omitted several things: match-past, dinner. But for the dinner, we were not so upset because the Governor, earlier in the year, hosted a dinner for a lot of the civil servants. But next year, we will start very early so that we will be able to do the whole complement of what we are used to.
Advocate for official buses for climate-change-friendly transport. This is the 20th activity that was almost looking impossible. Yes, we want it to be a statewide initiative, and the Governor appears to be interested, as I have heard that there are moves from the Ministry of Transportation. But before that, I felt that we could do a pilot programme, and then it could accelerate the interest and make sure everybody gets in and make it become a reality sooner.
The issue is that the civil service has a way, due to the bureaucratic setup, of taking a very long time from the initiation of an idea to implementation. But occasionally, you can shorten that time by letting people have visual representations of what the outcome will be and when the Ministry of Transport sees it in this case, they will marvel and be encouraged that the Office of the HOS is doing it and then escalate it.
Re-launch of The Delta Bureaucrat publication of the Office of the Head of Service: That is going to be done on Thursday (last week), and by the special grace of God, I have looked at some of the draft and I am very pleased.
Promote speed and ease of doing business: To improve the state’s ranking, there is an index called Ease of Doing Business. It is a ranking thing, and the last I heard about it was that Delta wasn’t where it ought to be. So, we felt that some of the things we should do were to ensure that people do not keep files for too long because it affects the ease of doing business. So, we are encouraging the Morning Listing in the MDAs. The Morning List helps to ensure that files do not stay too long in a particular office. Again, the digitisation process, which we have piloted, is another way of increasing the speed and ease of doing business.
Expanding the Senior Management Staff Committee: We have prepared a memo to the Governor, and hopefully, in the coming days, we will try to accelerate it so that we can get approval because we have promotions coming up, and we do not want it to be a five-person thing. We want a situation where we can have the full complement of 10.
Revitalisation of the Civil Service Club: We have written to the Ministry of Lands to give us information. We will send a reminder that we are waiting for feedback on the original land for the Civil Service Club. How do we get to reclaiming it and work towards building it? They have replied and we are very pleased with the response.
Orient the public servants on the appropriate dress code: I am so happy to say that the report on the committee on dress code is out. It was presented to me, and I was very excited to get this report from the committee led by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Urban Renewal. We looked at it and we think that to enforce it, apart from just circulating the contents, we will have flyers to give people the idea of the kind of dressing that doesn’t suit the office and what the right dressing is. When you are a civil servant, you are expected to dress in a particular manner, and the same goes for those going to public offices.
Promote agriculture among public servants: this is dear to my heart. We had a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and then we visited the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources in his official residence, where he has established a homestead garden. Then, we inaugurated the civil service agricultural project committee.
Recently, we had a training for 50 civil servants in the Office of the Head of Service on homestead gardening. So, we have taken this faster than people expected, and we will have more engagements. We are looking forward to getting some agricultural inputs for those who were trained.
The beauty is that this is the only thing a civil servant can do outside their government job, and you can become rich doing it. You do not need to wait for promotion arrears or fear retirement. It behoves us that since the government, in its magnanimity, considered agriculture and put it in the civil service rules, it will be a fallacy for us to be crying that our salaries are not enough when there is something that we have not explored.
So, the Office of the Head of Service is simply giving a push, creating an enabling environment, and we are hoping that in the next couple of weeks, we will see people coming with testimonials. Even if you are not doing it for profit’s sake, do it for subsistence so that it reduces your expenditure on food.
Promote the acid test in the selection of proposals, which involves asking these three questions: where have you done this before, what was the impact, and how much did it cost? This is new because almost every proponent that I have asked has not been able to answer these questions. But we will keep asking so that they will know that they cannot experiment with Delta State. We are looking for experts who have successfully done some wonderful projects, with evidence.
What we are saying is that if you have done something before, you should have social media links that we can verify. When I came on board, the Office of the Head of Service had a Facebook account, but now we have TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. This helps people see what we are doing, and we will not be surprised when we start getting offers of collaborations from donor agencies and other organisations.
Alternatively, request proponents to pilot their ideas in one community, ward or any office. So, we are considering how to digitise specific offices. The Office of the Head of Service, the Permanent Secretary (Office of the Head of Service), and other offices. This is what we are currently doing. Different proponents will go to different places and try out their proposals. We will try all of them and at the end of the day, we will scale up the best and make a case to the Governor. We will follow the same way for any idea. We will look for the most cost-effective option, and we do not want trial and error.
What inspired you to do all of these? One would ordinarily ask if you are a politician trying to make a mark.
It is my background. I have always known 100 days as a political gimmick to showcase that you have the capacity. It is said that you campaign in poetry but you govern in prose. Talk, they say, is cheap. People can come up to say all sorts of things (before being given the job), but when you give them the job, they begin to make excuses.
I have been following politics, and even though I am not a politician, I was taught by my Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, Michael Asuzu, that as professionals and as public health and community physicians, we can be political without being partisan. So, I do not have to carry a party card to contest as a civil servant, but I can understand politics.
As the National President of the Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN), I also had a 100-day scorecard. As Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, I advised the Commissioner for Environment to indicate his accomplishments in 100 days. He took my advice, and it helped him.
Again, my time is relatively short as Head of Service. Naturally, I have to think of quick wins that I can deliver. So, when I considered the possibility of being the Governor’s choice, I prepared myself and identified noticeable gaps in the civil service. I had a list of 35 things, but…. This is a very emotional moment for me now.
It was the late Mrs Shimite Bello-Love who met me at an event and asked me what the first thing I would do after my inauguration as Head of Service. That sent me thinking, and so I decided that the first thing would be to reorient civil servants on financial regulations. I was about to send her the information when I heard that she was gone. It was just so painful.
The first 100 days have come and gone. Are there plans for the next 100 days?
I am tempted to rest on my oars. It has been like a rollercoaster. I used to make this joke that I have an invisible cane that I use to flog people in line, telling them one thing many times to get the job done. But because I have it listed out and I check it every time, it enables me to have a laser focus, which is lacking in a majority of civil servants. We tend to be distracted a lot. Many motivational speakers will say ‘’don’t think it, ink it’’ and other analogies to document what you want to do. This is very important.
But I have looked at it and I said ‘’I have been on a rollercoaster for 100 days. Once these 100 days are over, I will just take my time’’. I mentioned it to the Permanent Secretary and some directors in one of our meetings, telling them that when I am done with the 100 days, I will give everyone a break. But one of the directors objected, fearing that they might slide back.
So, I think I will wait for the first anniversary to do any other big things after the 100 days. Because after one year, what is left will be seven months. So, as it is now, on the 10th of every month, I create a reel, and fortunately, I have learned the skill. I will keep doing it until I retire in October 2026. But the kind of urgency that the 100 days gave me will be a bit lifted. However, I promise that we will not backslide.
Among these 20 activities, which was the most challenging?
Of course, the last one. It involved a huge sum of money, and we had to put some other things on hold to achieve that. For me, that was the most challenging, but the one closest to my heart was that of agriculture, because it will put money in the pockets of all the public servants.
What are your final words?
I thank all those who have contributed to making the 100 days goal a reality, because it was not something that I did on my own. I had to work with my immediate team, and also engaged a lot of people outside my office. I want the civil servants to know that they can achieve almost anything they want through the help of God by doing the right thing.
Unfortunately, there is a tendency for us to believe that it is not possible to get to the top doing the right thing, and that is why I am very happy with the unique honour and privilege that I got to this esteemed position. The testimony has been that I have been a woman of integrity.
So, if some civil servants have been cutting corners, I appeal to them to repent. I want them to be evidence in their various offices that people have experienced a paradigm shift in their understanding of the way that the civil service works. I want them to also know that there is room for every public servant to shine. I want every public servant to be a farmer. Finally, I want them to key into the digitisation campaign.
