Be productive in your output – Maku tells Resident Information Officers

(Information Ministry Press Report) – The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku has charged the Resident Information Officers (RIOS) deployed to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS) to demonstrate professionalism efficiency in their outputs.

The Minister made the call during a one-day interactive session between the Permanent Secretary and Resident Information Officers on Tuesday April 8, 2014 at the National Press Centre, Abuja. He also tasked the officers to perform their jobs creditably with competence and skill or be overtaken by advances in the Information Technology world order. He further noted that in the past, a set of resolutions on expectations form some given tasks were used to determine the output of officers and urged them to sit up to the new realities in the profession.

The Minister berated officers who are lax in the performance of their duties; saying they should carry out their functions with expertise and professionalism. He indicated that productivity opens the doors and windows of opportunities in the midst of difficulties.

Labaran  Maku warned that drastic measures and changes will be meted out against officers who undermine the integrity of their host or parent Ministry by failing in their responsibilities. The Minister condemned the idea of officers over-staying in a place of posting for as long as eight to ten years  and called for an immediate overhaul of the posting procedures to determine the number of years an officer is expected to stay in a given MDA to avoid what he described as familiarity which breeds contempt.

He pronounced both punitive and gratifying   measures for erring officers and for those who have kept the Ministry’s flag flying, respectively.

Speaking earlier in a remark, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Folasade Esan decried the indigenisation tendency of some RIOS in their places of posting; stressing that such practice must stop.  She urged the officers to look inwards, be internet compliant and proficient in the performance of their duties in order to be accorded due respect and dignity.

The Permanent Secretary introduced the imploration of an Operational Manual for the officers and urged them to flood the Ministry’s website with features, analysis and articles on the government programmes and activities in their organisations.