Transportation Minister frowns at workers’ negative conducts

Abiola Seun

The Minister of Transportation, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has frowned at the nonchalant attitude and act of truancy displayed by some staff of the ministry towards the jobs for which they are being paid for by the Federal Government.

The Minister made the observation when he paid an unannounced surprise visit to staff in their different offices to ascertain their level of commitment to the Ministry.

Amaechi going round the offices one after the other interacted closely with few of the staff at their duty posts in the ministry, observed that at the time of his visit most of the offices were already deserted by workers before the official closing time of 4 pm even though the very few present were either listening to music on their phones or outrightly dormant.

Amaechi also noted with dismay how most of the offices were unkept promising to meet with the Permanent Secretary and leaders of the Civil Service Union of the ministry over the issues in ensuring that workers who do not add value to governance were redeployed immediately.

At the 9th floor, he observed a dilapidated area of the building which poses threats to staff safety and directed that it should be fixed without further delay in order to encourage staff to give their best for effective work delivery.

Chairman, Joint Union Negotiation Council (JUNC), of the ministry, Engr. Kolawolu Femi, who accompanied the minister on the tour described the minister’s visit to the offices as a timely and welcome development.

He noted that the act would no doubt, encourage and boost staff morale in the discharge of their official assignments.

“The minister’s visit to offices will help to encourage staff of the ministry. That singular act of visiting the offices would avail him the opportunity of seeing things for himself and proffer solutions where necessary.

“As you can see, It also afforded the minister to interact with the staff present, so it is a welcome development and I would like him to do this regularly and unannounced; this way, the very few who may not be serious with their duties will sit up,” he said.

Responding to the issue of absenteeism by workers, Engr.Kolawolu said, “The reason why most staff are not in their offices is that there is an ongoing training programme for the staff and most of us are participating in the programme and some other staff are observing their annual leave.”

The Union leader also used the opportunity to appeal to the minister to address the issue of insufficient office spaces for staff so as to curb the issue of overcrowding in some of the offices.

It would be recalled that two days after his reappointment as minister of transportation, Amaechi had a parley with staff and management of the ministry in which issues of lateness, absenteeism, truancy and workers’ welfare, in general, were adequately addressed.