By Adelola Amihere
The Minister of Transportation, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi has called on staff of the ministry and agencies under it to fast-track the delivery of the ministry’s mandate by developing implementable strategies and initiatives that are technologically driven.
In a statement signed by the Director, Press and Public Relations, Eric Ojiekwe stated that the minister made the call in Oron, Akwa Ibom State, at a three-day Ministerial Retreat organised by the ministry for its management staff and top functionaries of its agencies which ended over the weekend.
According to the statement, the minister also reiterated the need to achieve the current administration’s commitment to fill the infrastructural deficit in the country.
Going down memory lane, the Minister noted that “it suffices to recall that at the last Retreat various resolutions were arrived at with different Committees constituted to propel the actualisation of those resolutions with a view to ascertaining the level of implementation.”
While acknowledging the fact that a lot still needs to be done to meet the vision of the current administration, Amaechi noted that the Ministry was able to make remarkable achievements in the following critical areas like the establishment of Wagon Assembly Plant in Kajola, Ogun Stat, University of Transportation, Daura (construction ongoing, Commissioning of Warri-Itakpe railway lines among others
Still speaking, the Minister observed “am aware, that our Meduim-Term National Development Plan (MTDNP 2021-2025) high level goal is to ‘Build an Effective, Efficient, Intermodal, Safe, Reliable, Affordable and Sustainable Transportation System contributing positively to the growth of the Nigerian Economy’ and our Ministerial mandate 2019-2023 are our collective responsibility to ensure that the sector contributes its quota to National Development”.
Also speaking, the Honourable Minister of State for Transportation, Sen. Gbemisola Saraki who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, enjoined the participants to leverage on the platform of the “retreat to brainstorm, design and develop new strategies and initiatives and collectively align with the vision of President Muhammad Buhari to change the course of the transportation sector to become more productive, competitive in line with the current global trend.”
She further charged participants “to engender realistic strategies to enable our vision for a safe, efficient, affordable and seamless transportation become a reality.”
Earlier in her address, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, said that the retreat is a veritable platform for top management of the Ministry and its agencies to cross-fertilize ideas on how to galvanise the Transportation sector to meet the set goals and objectives of the Ministry.
