Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has assured that he will continue to place emphasis on the welfare of the ministry’s staff in order to boost their morale and enhance their productivity.
The minister said this in Abuja on Tuesday while handing over the keys of two newly-acquired buses to the Joint Staff Union of the ministry.
Mohammed, who was accompanied by the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Ayotunde Adesugba, and other top officials, said the ministry had commenced the process of phasing out old staff buses and replacing them with new ones for the convenience of staff.
“A couple of weeks ago, we decided in our meeting that the vehicles in the pool are getting very old and we said that we would be gradually replacing those vehicles as the funds are available.
”We believe that it’s morally wrong of us to expect workers to come early to work when they are using staff buses that are 20 years old. These vehicles will break down on the way to work and many of our people also live quite far away from the office, so we decided with the management to look at the best way to relieve the hardship of workers,” he said.
The Minister assured that the presentation of the vehicles marked the beginning of the numerous welfare packages that would be unveiled for the workers in due course.
“I want to assure you that this is the beginning of our gesture to make the welfare of workers in the Ministry of Information and Culture a priority, because without their cooperation the ministry cannot achieve what we want to achieve”, he said.
Mohammed, however, cautioned the operators of the staff buses to handle them with care in order to ensure their durability as well as the safety of the staffers.
In his response, the Chairman, Joint Staff Union in the ministry, Comrade Adam Agwola, expressed appreciation for the gesture and promised that workers would reciprocate by rededicating themselves to duty.
