The new Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola wasted no time after taking his oath of office to resume at his desk.
On assumption of duty at the Ministry of Power, Fashola went into a closed-door session with the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr. Louis Edozien, and directors on the way forward in tackling the enormous task ahead.
Fashola said that his thoughts were on how to bring together processes and activities of all the ministries now put under his supervision for effective service delivery.
He assured the ministry’s leadership of his willingness to learn from them as they were career people who have been on the job for a long time.
“We are here to work with you, in solving problems on ground as quickly as possible, we want to know if some of those problems are man-made or systemic. We want information on what has been done, what remained to be done, and what are the future plans, we want to continue from there,” Fashola said.
The minister said he was also interested in how best to harness the available human resources and physical asset in the ministry, as all these information would assist the ministry in commencing work immediately.
“We need to do more so as to regain lost time,” he said, emphaising that Nigerians are anxiously waiting for result, which in this case is improved power supply nationwide.
Also speaking, junior minister Shehuri said that as a matter of urgency, he wanted a detailed Ministerial Briefing Document to serve as a guide. “This will ensure proper take-off,” he said.
The Director, Human Resources, Mrs Grace Papka, gave copies of the requested documents and a time-table for proposed briefings by Departments and Agencies in the power sector to the two ministers.