Community leader lauds New York consulate for good customer service
A Nigerian community leader, Mr Francis James, has commended the Consulate-General of Nigeria in New York for good customer service, thanking the mission for excellent job.
James made the commendation at the virtual 5th Town Hall Meeting with the Nigerian Community within the New York jurisdiction hosted by the Consulate- General.
James, who co-anchored the meeting with Mr Bobby Digi, the President of Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), New York Chapter, appreciated the Consul-General, Amb. Lot Egopija and his team for the improved services at the Consulate.
"I have been in New York for 40 years. This is the first time in my entire dealings with our government officials that I can comfortably say that Nigerians are beginning to receive something that resembles good customer service experience.
"It is not happening by accident. I don't throw praises around unless it is well deserved, and this development happened because of good leadership.
"It happens by leaders, leadership matters, when a leader is determined to do something, it is easy for followers to follow the tune of that leader.
"It is what a leader does that the entire community embraces. I am seeing the Consulate team coming together in such a beautiful way,'' he said.
The official also commended the Consulate for collaborating with different organisations and entities in the U.S.
He, however, called on the nationals to support the good work done by the Consulate, saying," if there is anything you can do to make the nationals coming for consular services comfortable, please do so.
"You can partner with the Consulate to provide furniture for the nationals at the waiting room or any other support will be appreciated.''
Supreme reports that James, an official of Organisation for the Advancement of Nigerians (OAN) had consistently praised efforts of the leadership of the Consulate.
At the Town Hall meeting in July 2021, James commended the Consul-General for his achievements in just three months in office, especially the transformation he had carried out to produce positive changes.
"When we see opportunities for change, we must work together and give whoever wants to truly make this change an opportunity to deliver.
"I have seen tremendous improvements over the last three months, much more than we have seen over the last five years. Ambassador Lot is a man of his words.
"He realised that in order to serve better, he needed to engage with relevant stakeholders and he started by engaging some representatives of Nigerian communities led by the Organisation for the Advancement of Nigerians."
James also commended the Consul-General for fixing the problems of Nigerians loitering around in Nigeria House, saying, "I am not taking these achievements for granted because Egopija can stay for five years and not do anything.
"I'm happy to tell Nigerians we have the opportunity to turn things around. We want what is happening in New York to be replicated in our other missions globally.
"Dialogue produces better and lasting solutions than protests," he said.
Similarly, at a Town Hall Meeting in February 2022, James commended the Consul-General (CG) for his achievements, adding "the statement is from comments people posts on social media and make about the services render by the Consulate-General".
"It doesn't mean that we don't have any issue, but the CG has acknowledged that and talked about areas of progress.
"To the best of my knowledge, this is the only Consulate in diaspora who consistently hold Town Hall to discuss with Nigerian citizens and I think the CG deserves a lot of commendation.
"We do appreciate you, your willingness to listen to Nigerian community and to continue to engage them,'' he said.
Answering a question on why some nationals prefer to travel to New York for consular services, James said Nigerians would go to where they believe they would get quickest services.
"It takes collaboration, among Nigerian organisations and citizens with respective consulates to work together and get good services.
"We didn't arrive here by accident, we happen to have a leader who is willing to listen to several voices of Nigerians.
"Our intention is that once we are able to fix New York, we will engage with different organisations in other states to partner with their missions.
"New York mission is not yet perfect, but we can see a lot of improvement,'' he said.
Earlier, the CG told the meeting that Nigerians had to travel from Indiana, Chicago and other far states to come to New York because it is within its jurisdiction.
He said the Nigerian Government was working to re-open the San-Francisco mission to provide consular services for Nigerians on the West Coast and to also reduce traffic from other missions.
