The new Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications, Mr. Istifanus Musa Mik Fuktur, has admonished Directors and Heads of Units in the Ministry to focus on policies that would make an impact on the life of Nigerians rather than pushing for their personal comforts.

He gave the admonition on Wednesday during the handing over ceremony by Director, Human Resources Management, Mr. El Baff Abubakar, at the Ministry’s Conference room, Abuja.

The Permanent Secretary expressed displeasure over briefs from various departments that, he said, is dominated by staff welfare rather than the comfort of Nigerians at large and urged the directors and their unit heads to focus more on things that would translate to a better life for Nigerians so that the positive effect of governance could also be felt by citizens.

The Permanent Secretary disclosed that a timetable would soon be made available to all departments and units to present their departmental brief which would serve as a mirror to enable him to coordinate the Ministry activities for effectiveness and efficiency.

Mr. Istifanus urged them to be accurate while submitting their briefs and to be careful not to live out any important detail from these briefs to prevent costly mistakes that could cause developmental retrogression.

In his words, “Usually, the brief states what is in your budget. What your challenges are? And most of the response is often like: we don’t have office accommodation, no air conditioners; and so on. We should move away from those things and focus on the people. This is the Ministry of Communications; we should focus on what we can do to make life easy for Nigerians.”

The Permanent Secretary added: “Government is paying to ensure we are comfortable, we stay in Abuja, receive our salaries, enjoyed power supply, good roads and so on, we, therefore, need to give our people something back so that they can appreciate our efforts. I am not saying you shouldn’t table your challenges, but it shouldn’t overshadow the general needs of Nigerians.”

Earlier, the Human Resources Management Director, Mr. Abubakar, while welcoming the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry stated that handing over ceremony is a common practice in service in order to ensure continuity in government operations.

• L_R: Director, (Postal & Telecommunication Service), Engr. Ngozi Ogujiofor, Director, (ICT), Mrs. Monilola Udoh, Permanent Secretary, Mr. Istifanus Musa Mik Fuktur, director (Human Resources), Mr. El Baff Abubakar, Director (Finance & Account) R. Lekwauwa, and Director (Monitoring & Survey), Engr. K.N. Binga during the handing over ceremony at the Ministry’s Headquarters, Abuja

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