Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation and aerospace development, has pleaded for cooperation of all members of staff to work harmoniously together toward advancing the ministry.

According to him, the effective collaboration with the staff will enhance maximum output.

“Thank you for the warm welcome. The President did not send me here by mistake. I think he has clear ideas as to why he sent me here. I will need your maximum cooperation to make us succeed.

“I have read your roadmap developed in 2016, read it thoroughly, point for point. Our intention is not to disrupt things that have been done so well. Government is a continuum.

“If there are things that have not been done properly within the road map, we may look at them again, “ he said.

The minister, however, said he might add to the roadmap but not pull down the roadmap or tear it down to start over again.

Mr Keyamo , who said he liked the aviation roadmap structure, stated that he would like to know the stage of its objectives and achievements.

“Like I said, government is a continuum, it is the same party that is in power. There are things that have been done properly. There are things that have not been done properly well.

“Things that are still in the pipeline, we will look at all of these. My intention is to get my briefings within the few days or weeks. We will do this thoroughly as we can.

“We will develop our ideals and take it to the President for approval so that we can kick off. That is what I intend to do here,“ the minister said.

Mr Keyamo said his watch word would be transparency in the ministry.

He said Nigerians, at any point, wanted to understand what the ministry was doing.

“For me, my watch word will be transparency here. At every point in time, the Nigerian people want to understand what we are doing. Nothing will be done in secrecy.

“They must understand what we are doing. We must carry them along so that we will not have the kind of complaints we had in the past.

“We should be as open as possible because we are serving the Nigerian people. My history is people oriented from private practice to public office, “ he said.

Mr Keyamo recalled that he was prosecutor for more than one decade for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

According to him, things from the more complex issues to the simplest issues that Nigerians want to see, the complaints they have, the part of the optics they see every day about the ministry will be looked into.

“ Nigerians may not know the work you have been doing behind, especially in terms of safety of passengers in the aviation environment. But, they may appreciate the few things they see.

“We will look at all these to see how we can improve on them. For every point in time we must put the people first. This is not a forum I can mention all the things I noticed in your roadmap.

“We will have our briefings as soon as possible. We may work late to achieve our objectives. I beg for your cooperation, because I need you to succeed,” he said.

Responding, Emamanuel Meribole, the permanent secretary in the ministry, described Mr Keyamo as a result and target-oriented leader for having the aviation roadmap as his vision.

According to him, the members of staff are ready to work with Mr Keyamo to position the aviation sector to where it is supposed to be.

“The good thing about our members of staff is when you lead we follow.

“This gives us hope that what we will start doing in the aviation sector, we shall conclude them. We also have some litigation issues which you will also help us to bring into conclusion.

“Since you are in the right direction, we are hopeful to follow you in that way. I pledge our loyalty. We hope you will achieve the results in the ministry of Aviation and Aerospace,” he said. 

(NAN)