SAN FRANCISCO, September 24, (THEWILL) – The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that appointments into public offices and key positions at the federal level of government is guided by merit, insisting that the era of “godfatherism’’ is over.
The minister stated this in Abuja on Sunday at a thanksgiving reception by the newly appointed Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Culture, Ms Grace Gekpe.
Mohammed, who was represented at the event by the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Mr Bayo Onanuga,
stated that appointment to positions in the Federal Government “is strictly by merit’’.
According to him, “Gone are those days when people were appointed into positions by other factors apart from merit.
“Most of us must have heard that the new permanent secretaries were asked to write examination; Gekpe was one of the very few that scaled through the examination. Gekpe is a shining and beautiful woman.
“That could have earned her the appointment, but not under this regime of Change.
“She is a permanent secretary by virtue of hard work, merit and because she has a lot of things to offer,’’ he said.
The minister insisted that the Muhammadu Buhari government is doing a lot of things, but lamented that its efforts are being misrepresented by naysayers.
He therefore stated “that the government needed to raise an army of competent information managers to counter the false and negative narratives about the administration”.
Mohammed also underscored the need for upward review of the retirement age of journalists working in the Ministry of Information.
“They are like judges and university professors; like old wine, they get better with age,’’ he said.
