PUBLIC COMPLAINTS COMMISSION NEED TO BE UPGRADED NOT DOWNGRADED
The Public Complaints Commission (PCC) is an agency of the Federal government of Nigeria which acts as an Ombudsman that receives complaints of the citizenry against the government or private institutions and organization or their officials and wades in to settle the complaint amicably in accordance with the law.
The Commission was set up in 1975 to ensure accountability and transparency in the way government and its agencies as well as organizations engage with the public and to curb arbitrary use of administrative powers by public officials within and outside government establishments.
Public Complaints Commission also serves as a watchdog and people’s court where everyone can get social and administrative justice free of charge. Public Complaints Commission reduces tension, discontent and even crime among the citizenry which may arise if people do not know where to air the grievances they have with government, corporate body’s actions or inaction.
The activity of the commission despite being underfunded between 2022 and 2023, a total of about 409,745 cases received while about 245,461 were resolved, while some cases are still pending, in 2022 alone a total of 125,064 out of 173,500 complaints have been resolved.
This present government of his Excellency Bola Tinubu need to appreciate and empower the only Organization that specialized in redressing administrative injustices.
According to Odunsi who submitted that existence of public complaints commission in Nigeria and comparative analysis of the activities of the Ombudsman in other countries suggests that the Nigerian Public Complaints Commission has resolved at least a respectable number of cases than her counterparts.
In December 2022, Ex President Muhammadu Buhari described the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) as the best suited Agency to domicile the whistleblowing policy of the Federal Government and promote social justice for individual citizen without which there can hardly be genuine peace and stability in Nigeria.
The Present government need to improve the Act of the commission by way of amendment and improvement in the area of weakness observed in it’s law, procedure, practices rules and regulations for standards for officals.
In conclusion, Ombudsman is a big fish that can’t swallowed, even Sharks can’t swallow Ombudsman talk less of ordinary fishes like NHRC.
What Public Complaints Commission need is her Act to be amended, improve welfare of the staff and others.
Thanks
Suleiman A. Kolapo
PEO
