The UNESCO Centre in collaboration with CPALD recently organized a public lecture and award ceremony in commemoration of the UNITED NATIONS PUBLIC SERVICE DAY 2013. The theme of the event was “Efficient Public Service Delivery in Nigeria: Issues and Challenges“.

UNESCO Centre is a registered entity with Nigeria National Commission for UNESCO (NATCOM ) with the mandate of promoting the ideals and values of UNESCO and that of United Nations. The centre has marked many international Days with public lectures since its inception in 2005. The centre also carries out focused capacity building programmes targeted at the grassroots and geared towards support of communities’ efforts for peace and conflict resolution.

The UNESCO centre collaborated with the Centre for Policy Advocacy and Leadership Development ( CPALD ) to package this year Public Service Day. CPALD is a non – governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to promote transformative governance through advancing knowledge management (KM) for shared learning, capacity building, policy action research and communication outreach.

The organizers selected eight worthy Nigerians for this year’s award. They are; Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi ; The Governor of central bank of Nigeria (CBN) ; His Excellency, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson , the Governor of Bayelsa state ; Alhaji Gimba Ya’ukumo, Managing Director, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN); Engr. Adeseyi Sijuade, Managing Director, Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC); Engr. Habu Ahmed Gumel, Executive secretary, National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF); Dr. Ifeanyi Uba, Managing Director, Capital Oil; Captain Chinyere Kalu, Rector and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nigeria College of Aviation, Zaria and Hon. John Timbee Tondu, Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Benue state.

High point of the occasion was a group photograph of the awardees and the organizers. The president of UNESCO Center, Abuja, Kazeem Inaolaji told newsmen that his organization has planned to be more actively involved in United Nations activities henceforth.