Maku Directs Information Ministry Staff To Wear Local Fabric Fridays The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, on Monday in Abuja said the ministry is reactivating its different foreign offices. He also directed staff of his ministry to wear locally made fabric every Friday. Mr. Maku, who was addressing journalists, said this is part of the ministry’s efforts to adequately project the image of Nigeria globally. He added that the ministry has received a presidential approval to that effect and would start its foreign operations once logistic challenges are addressed. “Foreign posting has been approved. We need information officers in all the key embassies abroad. The question of promoting Nigeria’s image will be their daily task. They will reply stories that are negative about Nigeria in those countries; they will write positive stories. They will post whatever we are doing in the nation; they would coordinate and expose us in those countries. They will campaign about the opportunities for investment; they will reply anything about Nigeria and set the record right,” Mr. Maku said. He pointed out that the foreign posting is not a luxury but rather crucial to the image of the country. He disclosed that Federal Information Offices across the country have been revamped through the allocation of resources to enable them to carry out some publicity activities on the programmes and projects of government. Making reference to the non-operational Federal Government Printing Press, Mr. Maku regretted that the funds allocated to the project last year could not be operated but assured that the ministry would do whatever is necessary in this year’s appropriation to get the printing press ready. On the issues of capacity building and welfare of the staff of the ministry, Mr. Maku said the sum of N100 million was expended on staff training last year, adding that the ministry now gave priority to staff training and development to achieve optimal performance in service delivery. He stated that unlike in the past where staff training was outsourced to consultants, under his leadership, funds for staff training were channeled to the National Institute of Public Information (NIPI) which was statutorily established to train staff of the ministry. Mr. Maku also disclosed that power had been stabilized in the ministry to ensure that the radio stations within the ministry complex operate without interruption. “Before now, we were running power on generators and I asked a question is there nothing we can do? So we discovered that we have been getting power just from the general line. This ministry is so strategic because the radio network is here. So we decided to go and take power permanently from the high tension line,” he explained. Mr. Maku reminded the staff about the campaign for Made-in-Nigeria products and said in compliance with earlier directive, every staff should wear Made-in-Nigeria fabric on Fridays, adding that an award has been instituted for the best dressed staff. He also lamented that funding has been a constraint on the implementation of some of the programmes designed by the ministry but additional funds are being sourced from the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) to address some of the challenges. -Premium Times
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 19:47:00 +0000
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