Posted by From FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja on
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai has taken over the running of the Internal Affairs Ministry pending when a substantive minister will be appointed, just as four ministers were said to have been suspended by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai has taken over the running of the Internal Affairs Ministry pending when a substantive minister will be appointed, just as four ministers were said to have been suspended by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
El-Rufai has been specifically directed to restructure and oversee the on-going Public Service Refoms at the Internal Affairs Ministry, which currently does not have a minister following the disengagement from service last week of Ambassador Magaji Mohammed.
Also, Minister of State in the ministry is said to be receiving medical attention abroad.
Mallam el-Rufai who made his maiden visit to the ministry addressed the staffers during which he disclosed that five ministries were lagging behind in the implementation of the Public Service Reform, as discovered by the reform committee of which he is the head and were subsequently reported the development to the President.
He disclosed that attempts at restructuring the ministeries received little co-operation from the indicted ministers and that it was as a result of this that Obasanjo placed embargo on four of them, adding that the affected ministers are to stay away till end of July, when it is expected that the restructuring and reform exercise would have been completed .
Said he: "Yesterday, at the meeting of the Economic Management team and at the Federal Executive Council meeting, we submitted progress report of the Public Service Reform. As a result of the submission, we reported that the five priority ministries that the president identified, namely Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Transport, Health, Education, and Internal Affairs, are lagging behind in the implementation of the restructuring process. We've had series of meetings but there's not been high-level co-operation."
While calling for the support of management and staff of the Internal Affairs Ministry, el-Rufai said: "The Internal Affairs Ministry is parastatal-intensive because you have very high-profile services - Immigration, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Commission, and Prisons. These will also be looked at though they have separate guidelines. Some of you here know how I work.
"When I am given a job to do, I do it. If you give us the information we need, we'll make good progress but if you don't, we'll still do the job but we might be unfair or unjust. You will do the reforms yourselves because the guidelines are there. I want a weekly report because I am expected to report weekly to the president."