Lai Mohammed, has made his first remark as the newly sworn-in minister of Information and Culture, saying that his re-appointment and subsequent posting to the ministry is a mark of confidence reposed in him by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The minister made the remarks in Abuja on Wednesday at his inaugural meeting with the Permanent Secretary and directors of the ministry immediately after he was sworn in by the President.
Mr Mohammed, therefore, charged the management and staff of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture to work harder to justify the confidence of President Muhammadu Buhari.
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“My charge to all of us is to please redouble our effort so that we can justify the confidence Mr. President has reposed in us. That Mr. President has reappointed and posted me back to this ministry is a measure of the confidence he has in me. So, I think we all need to work hard.
“Let me express my joy at the prospect of working again with the Directors that I worked with in the last administration. Whatever success we had achieved was because of the cooperation and collaboration of Directors who worked with us,” he said.
Mr Mohammed said he would continue to work very closely with the Permanent Secretary and the Directors in order to implement the core mandate of the ministry.
“There must be synergy between the Minister and the Permanent Secretary and I must say that I have enjoyed very cordial working relationship with my Permanent Secretary, and I am very glad that that relationship contributed in no small measure to the moderate success we achieved. We need your cooperation because we can’t do it alone,” he said.
The minister also thanked the Media team that worked with him in the past four years, saying the team did a lot to publicize the activities of the ministry.
In her remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Grace Isu-Gekpe, expressed delight at the reappointment of Mr Mohammed and pledged the readiness of the management and staff of the ministry to support and cooperate with the minister to enable him achieve his mandate.
“It has actually been my desire to have you back sir. We are all very glad to have you back to continue where you stopped. There is a lot of work here and I believe that you will surely take this ministry to the next level.
“I want to say welcome back to your family and all of us are ready to work with you to take this ministry and the whole nation, in areas of information and Culture, to the next level,” she said.
