NISER END OF YEAR PARTY SPEECH BY THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL

I want to start by thanking everyone for their contributions to what I think has been a good year. The same contributions that I believe make the year worth celebrating 🍾.  We are indeed grateful to God Almighty for this. You have all been wonderful and in your little, little ways and corners, have made the year successful. I say so because we came in about a year and a half now and the support has been tremendous. Exactly a year ago, I thought it was just the euphoria of being newly at the helm of affairs or being someone from inhouse, but the support and cooperation has not waned till now. Thank you so much 💓. 

In the course of this year, we welcomed a new government and administration. We honoured them with a publication titled, Best Foot Forward. We also got a new Hon Minster,  His Excellency, Senator Bagudu Mohammed, who made time and visited us with his predecessor; we improved relations with our mother Ministry and have benefited more than before in trainings and partnerships; we were given a surprise breeze-in visit by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS); we held several trainings for staff and outsiders alike; we organised seminars and sponsored a few staff for trainings, we managed some renovation works on our vehicles and office buildings, patched some leaking roofs here and there; improved on the physical facing and frontage of the NISER gate and Admin building, including hoisting live flags; we started initial phase of setting up our e-Library, subscribed to an international journal of institute-wide relevance, and added to the books purchased last year while improving our website. Furthermore, we are not behind in annual subscriptions for Internet and had collaborations with a few new organisations, both international and domestic, the fruits of which we shall begin to see in the coming year. Furthermore, a few people were opportune to travel outside and gain international exposure under externally funded projects. The institute also sponsored a couple of researchers on international trips using NISER funds;  we gave life to the medical board of the institute by creating awareness about our health numbers and taking care of one’s health especially in these periods of economic and social stress that the entire nation is experiencing.

A few activities could however not hold. For instance, towards the general elections, we were contacted and were going to be engaged as ad-hoc staff and names were collated. Unfortunately, this did not materialise. Similarly, we are still hoping that the ITEC training initiated by our parent ministry materialises. I just need to say that I can only continue to explore opportunities for the benefit of staff while hoping that they materialise. There are many other dreams that we have, many things that we would like to do but for resource constraints. Nonetheless, as tight as things are, we look forward to actualising many more in the coming and years ahead. Sadly, we also lost some of our staff, may their souls rest in peace, amen.

I would however like to touch on a few worrying areas/features among staff that I have observed and which in totality, I can summarise as indiscipline. Let us drop these negativities with 2023 as they will not be tolerated and will attract disciplinary measures in 2024. In other words, let us all pick up positive and improved work and NISER related new year resolutions for the good of all in 2024. Afterall, what is a beautiful workplace without a good work attitude and committed staff?

I have heard people make statements like: you like work, you pay too much attention to detail; you are a slave driver etc. Thankfully, these are not bad traits, this is me, and I expect more from you, my staff. Kindly move at, close to or even beyond my pace so that together, we can achieve more, to take NISER to higher heights. Afterall, this is where our bread is being buttered, though it may be unleavened, dry, coarse, sour dough, sliced or unsliced etc. I am optimistic that 2024 is going to be a good year for us; among others, we will have a bigger budget and more will be expected of us. Let us all commit therefore to doing better.

Despite the negativities and a few bad eggs however, I LOVE AND THANK ALL THE STAFF- the truth is that without you there would be no NISER, no DG, no Mummy GO! I therefore implore that as we start a new year and I inch closer to my 2nd anniversary, you do not relent in your contributions towards the functionality, growth and relevance of NISER and the nation at large.

Thank you, happy end of year celebrations and new year in advance.

May God abundantly bless all my staff.

PROF. ANTONIA T. SIMBINE

20/12/2023