Life And People
Col. Milland Dixon Dikio: The Round Peg In A Round Hole -By Gozie Irogboli
Col. Milland Dikio is seen by many as not just a man of character and skills but also a man of ideas. Those who knew him from close quarters are overwhelmed by his depth of knowledge and his intellectual prowess. And those who work with him see him as workaholic and a man with incredible analytical and people management skills.
In a country like Nigeria where self-seeking politicians, pettifoggers and unscrupulous public officers prowl, it is always cheery to identify with those who dared to be different. Part of my interest as a public policy analyst and strategist is not just about public policy engineering but also about those that design the policies and the conduct of public oficers who implement the policies. Strategic planning and visioning will be a mere perfunctory exercise if the implementation of the plans is faulty. Following my passion, I have painstaking monitored the performances of Nigerian public officers especially in the current regime and one personality whose performance or conduct is of particular interest to me is Col. Milland Dixio Dikio (Retd), the administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Program and who in the short period he has stayed in the office has distinguished himself as a conflict manager with enviable administrative ingenuity. He has indeed proved to be a round peg in a round hole. In my first essay about him, I tried to analyze some of the qualities that endeared him to the people. They are many great things about him and I cannot stop writing about him.
Public office is a call to service. A conscience administration keeps his mandate in focus and works consciously to achieve it. Meeting targets, achieving shared goals involves delivering the right/needed services to the stakeholders. It is about doing that which is generally acceptable, legally defensible and ethically desirable, as scholars would put it. And by his conduct, Col. Milland Dikio is acutely aware of this golden truth about public administration.
Milland Dixon Dikio and President Buhari
As a conflict manager an administrator and Col. Milland Dixion Dikio clearly understands the concept of stakeholders’ engagement. He has consulted widely and he is going about his job the way it should be. An independent survey has shown that all the stakeholders connected to the Presidential Amnesty Program—the ex-agitators, the Niger Delta communities, his employer the Federal Government, the contractors to the office, the partners, and the staff of the agency among others are all pleased with the leadership style of the seasoned administrator.
No doubt, the current Presidential Amnesty boss has outstanding leadership qualities as demonstrated in the way he has carried on since he took over. He has the charisma, the knowledge, the skills, the commitment and the will power to work and influence others toward goal congruence. He is selflessly committed towards the attainment of the common goal of maintaining peace and developing the Niger Delta region and the nation in general. Demonstrably, he has the wisdom to make right consultations, the courage to make the right decisions and the willingness to make sacrifices for peace in the region. His management savvy is exhibited by the relative peace and calmness that has pervaded the agency since he took over at the helm of affairs in the Presidential Amnesty Office.
Gozie Irogboli
No doubt his training and orientation as a soldier may have influenced his level of discipline, commitment to assigned duties and patriotic zeal. But his level of discipline, integrity, exemplary conduct are rare in this part of the globe and may not just be about his military orientation but about his good nature as an individual for there are many people in our nation today with the same military background as his but who go about with the erroneous notion that discipline is about capacity to enforce punishment on others rather showing exemplary conduct and sticking to the rules of engagement.
His exposure to international assignment is another critical factor in his career that may have shaped his professionalism, dedication to duty, adherence to rules of engagement, love for humanity, empathy etc. His due diligence procedures in the office, open door policies and transparency is in keeping with global best practice. As I noted in an earlier essay, he was particularly outstanding in peace keeping operations being one of the officers in the ECOMOG, AU and UN contingents. In the past, he has been involved in high profile international conflict resolution projects. He was the Military Adviser/Principal Program Officer Peacekeeping at ECOWAS Executive Commission. In Sierra Leone he was involved in the Child Soldiers Rehabilitation Camp in Orogu and Disarmament Camp in Newton.
His environmental awareness is also something to cheer about. He is well acquainted with the problems, the potentials and the issues of the Niger Delta Region and that again influenced his modus operandi. A leader who assumes office with inadequate background knowledge of his environment will grope about trying to find his footing. Again, most people come to public office blinded by greed and avarice; not being able to separate personal interest from general interest and that actually is the bane of public service in Nigeria—the ethical dilemma of confusing parochial and national interest.
Conceptually too, Col. Milland Dikio is seen by many as not just a man of character and skills but also a man of ideas. Those who knew him from close quarters are overwhelmed by his depth of knowledge and his intellectual prowess. And those who work with him see him as workaholic and a man with incredible analytical and people management skills.
Furthermore, those who have had the opportunity of encountering the amiable River State born administrator can attest to the fact that he is a man of unassuming and genial disposition, humble, kind and considerate; who is always willing to listen and help when he can. Within this short space of time where he had held sway at the Presidential Amnesty Office Milland Dikio has actually demonstrated that he is reliable and dependable and hence will be factor in the politics of Niger Delta now and in the future and as the election year 2023 beckons, I sincerely recommend greater role for the seasoned administrator in our national affairs. Nigeria needs conscientious public officers and Col. Milland Dixon Dikio is one of them.
Gozie Irogboli
An economist, a consultant, novelist and public policy analyst
(goziei@yahoo.com)
