By Dwelleth Morountodun
The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Monday, charged the staff of the ministry and it’s agencies to raise the bar of performance
and accountability in the discharge of their duties so as to meet the expectations of Nigerians in line with its mandate of ensuring the maintenance of internal security and citizenship integrity.
Aregbesola gave the charge during the 4th quarterly performance review meeting of the top management staff of the ministry and its agencies, held at the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) Headquarters in Abuja.
He said that the review was a tool that can be used to measure the successes and challenges recorded by various departments of the Ministry, the services and the board on the implementation of government’s policies, projects and programmes.
According to him: “It is through the monitoring and reporting of accomplishments, particularly progress made toward pre-established goals that we can ensure development.”
This meeting is therefore instituted to review overall performance of the Ministry and its Services including, of course, the Board, against the agreed targets; provide a forum for strategic planning discussions and policy recommendations and action; identify whether the ministry is meeting the expectations of the public it serves, ensure decisions and policies are based on facts and identify where improvements need to be made”, he said.
The Minister who observed that the Ministry, its Services and the Board have improved tremendously in the area of security service delivery and citizenship integrity within the period under review, urged the staff to put more efforts into stemming out the menace of kidnapping -for-ransom, ritual killing, juvenile gangsterism and insurgency in the North-east, North-west and some other parts of the country as well as ensure the protection of crop farmers which he said, will improve national food security.
While expressing his determination to reposition the ministry for optimum security service delivery to Nigerians and foreigners alike in line with its assigned mandate, he tasked the staff to take their jobs seriously, noting that the little efforts put in the line of duty will help the government and people of the country to attain its goals and aspirations.
He further emphasized the need to get the public abreast of all the achievements of the ministry, its services and the board, especially in the area of improved security, revenue generation and protection of critical national assets as well as in disaster management.
“I must commend you all for the improved performance in the period under review. Let me also emphasize the need for the Ministry and Services in particular, including the Board, to ensure that the public is kept up-to-date with your activities and achievements. Only few Nigerian’s, for example, know the tremendous achievements recorded by the Federal Fire Service (FFS) when they saved property worth over N1 trillion.
Nigerians need to know about these successes. The same applies to Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) as well as various Departments of the Ministry and the Board.
We are a service ministry and Nigerians must know the extent at which we are serving them”, he said.
In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Shuaib Belgore, stated that the performance review meeting is held to enable the ministry assess the level of achievements so far recorded in respect to its mandate and the identified priority areas, noting that the current meeting is to review performance within the months of October – December 2020.
He therefore called on participants to urgently articulate strategies and map out time lines that will enable the achievements of goals and objectives of the priority projects and improve performance within the sector.