The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Bitrus Bako Nabasu mni has tasked staff of the Ministry to exhibit high level professionalism, discipline, teamwork and commitment to the realization of the mandates of the Ministry.
Mr. Nabasu emphasized that the Ministry is a professional organization which is central to the economic and social development of the nation; hence every staff must be committed to ensuring the full realization of the mandates of the Ministry by honing their knowledge and skills.
The Permanent Secretary who was meeting the generality of staff of his new Ministry for the first time, charged staff to be different to the presence of the Honourable Minister and their Permanent Secretary by staying put at their duty post when these principal officers have not closed for the day. He reasoned that every staff being professionals could be required at short notice to give necessary inputs to the policy being considered by the principal officers. “You cannot be found absent when you are needed to answer to the Honourable Minister or your Permanent Secretary or your Directors”, he charged. “It will be disrespectful to the Honourable Minister for him as the Permanent Secretary to have closed from the office when the Minister is still at work; so also it will be disrespectful to me as the Permanent Secretary for any Director to close when I am still at work.”
Nabasu said the idea of asking staff to wait on their principal officers for better inputs to policies could be for not asking for overtime compensation but sacrifice. “Everyone must be ready to sacrifice to ensure that the work is done.” He gave this charge while giving his address at his maiden meeting with the staff on 8th January, 2020, held at the Amphitheatre of NNPC Towers.
As the maiden meet-the-staff meeting was an interactive one, the staff took up the gauntlet from their permanent secretary by making some suggestions and extracting a number of commitments from him and his management team: The Staff want a return of the Management Committee in respect of Capacity Building to ensure transparency and spread at selecting staff for trainings; Work-stations to accommodate more staff in view of scarce office accommodation at the Block D Office Accommodation for the Head Office of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources; Better Staff Transportation to and fro work; Better awareness and Corporate-Social-Responsibility from the Agencies of the Ministry to their Supervisory Management and Staff; A need to make the Ministry an ICT and Data Hub; Better Press Relations and Media Equipment, etc.
While replying to a staff who wanted clarification on staff welfare, the Permanent Secretary said: “Much as I cherish welfare of my staff, I will not be party to doing things contrary to regulations.” On this, the Permanent Secretary said, he will only see how to enhance welfare of his staff to the extent that the rules and regulations permit him.
The Permanent Secretary told the staff to be ready to escalate or cascade lessons learnt whenever any of them is sponsored by the Ministry to attend workshops and trainings or when they go to represent the Ministry at any forum to those who were not nominated for the same course. “What is the reason for sending ten staff for training when you can send 2 or 3 who are competent and who can come back and train others”, he queried.
On the poor Corporate-Social-Responsibility from the Agencies of the Ministry towards the Ministry’s Management and Staff, Nabasu charged that “When the Ministry’s Management and Staff improves on their oversight of the Agencies, the Agencies will have no choice than to see us in a better light and extend the necessary respect to the Ministry.” “Let us show the difference in our attitude’ let us show the difference in our commitment to work”, the Permanent Secretary added.
Signed:
Olujimi Oyetomi,
Head, Press Unit, Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
Wednesday, 8th January, 2020.