BY PATRICK MGBODO
DELTA State Head of Service, Dr (Mrs) Minimim Oseji has launched the pilot phase of a mass transit scheme for civil servants in her office, fulfilling a key pledge ahead of her first 100 days in office.
The Pointer recalls that Dr (Mrs) Oseji, who succeeded Mr Reginald Bayoko was inaugurated by Governor Sheriff Oborevwori as the 12th Head of Service on April 10, 2025.
During her inauguration, Dr Oseji pledged to undertake innovative reforms that would position the state civil service for greater efficiency and in stronger alignment with the MORE Agenda.
In an exclusive interview with The Pointer, yesterday, ahead of her first 100 days on July 19, 2025, Dr Oseji reeled out a 20-point agenda which has preoccupied her since assuming office.
‘’I can say that we have initiated the 20th activity. I am sure that a lot of people will be wondering what it is that took so long. It is our pilot mass transit programme for the transportation of staff of the Office of the Head of Service to come to work.
‘’We have got our vehicles on the ground and I am going to test one of them today (yesterday). Hopefully, by tomorrow (today), I will be able to test the second one.
‘’We are going to put these vehicles in strategic places very early in the morning and we will let our staff know where to be so that they can come out and take advantage of the scheme.
‘’This will help with coming to work early. For now, it is one-way; it is just to bring them to work early. People leave (the office) at different times; they may want to go to school-run or other assignments and then go home from there.
‘’For now, are not too sure of how often we will be doing it in a week but if we can do it every day (Mondays to Fridays), that will be awesome. However, it is a pilot phase and it will enable us to know the cost implications.
‘’This is something very close to my heart because I know that having a transport system for staff motivates them a lot. We have done a survey to find out about their cost of transportation. Some say it costs them about N1,000, and others say it costs them about N1,600 a day.
‘’Imagine if they are staff from Level One to 14 and they have to spend N16,000 to come to work for just 10 days; that’s a whooping sum. Then those who have cars say they spend about N60,000 in a month to buy fuel alone.
‘’So, when you have a mass transport system, it will help cut costs. Again, the scheme is climate-friendly because if you can carry about 50 persons to work all at the same time, you have reduced carbon emissions’’ she said.
