The Director General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dr. Joe Abah has said that the simple definition of reforms is changing something to a better state and that the purpose of ALL Public Service Reforms must be to bring about tangible improvements in the life of citizens. Dr. Abah made these remarks on 8th of June, 2016 during a lecture he delivered to participants of the Executive Intelligence Management Course at the Institute for Security Studies in Abuja titled “Public Service Reforms and Institution Building.”

Dr. Abah revealed that serious Public Service Reforms started under the Obasanjo Presidency and they include strengthening of NAFDAC which brought down the incidence of fake drugs from 41% in 2000 (80% in Lagos) to about 4% now, ensuring that everyone that retires from the Public Service actually gets a pension with contributory pension scheme moving from a deficit of N46 billion in 2004 to a healthy credit of N5 trillion in 2015.  Others include deregulating the communications industry such that from only 500,000 phone lines in Nigeria in 1999, we now have more than 200 million active phone lines- an increase of 40,00% which implies that we now have more phone lies than the population of Nigeria. Furthermore, electoral reforms in the Country meant that for the first time in our history, we are able to choose our leaders creditably and without violence, the ultimate accountability tool in any democracy. Also, the current administration is making social protection and caring for the disadvantaged a central part of state policy which will have real impact on the lives of the poorest, the unemployed and the vulnerable.
Dr. Abah concluded by categorizing them as real reforms and not administrative reviews of the past focusing on the structure and welfare of public servants and not on the wellbeing members of the public.