Wike says it is a subset of the contract between the ministers and the president
The Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufa?i, the permanent secretary and directors, as well as heads of agencies under the ministry, on Monday, signed service performance contracts.
Rufa?i, at the ceremony in Abuja, said that nothing less would be done to achieve the transformation agenda in the education sector.
President Goodluck Jonathan had, on August 23, signed the performance contract with his cabinet ministers to ensure optimum performance.
The minister noted that signing the same agreement with the president made it imperative to do so at the ministry level.
Rufa?i acknowledged that she and the minister of state alone could not achieve the desired target without the help of the workers, who were the “engine room” of the ministry.
“You are the people doing the work while we are simply coordinating to ensure that things are done correctly,” Rufa?i told them.
She commended the president and the National Planning Commission for the initiative and pledged that they would work to achieve the transformation agenda in the education sector.
The Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, said that the performance contract was a subset of the one signed earlier with the president.
“This is definitely not new because in the good old days in the civil service, there used to be a method of tracking performance. What we are only doing is re-introducing what we used to do in the good old days. The performance contract which we are signing today is a subset of what the honourable ministers have already signed with Mr. President,” Wike said.
“It has to cascade down to all of us since we are the ones to make the necessary input to ensure that the minister succeeds.”
The Permanent Secretary, Ben Ibe, who was performing his last official assignment, urged civil servants to be strong, competent and committed to their official duties. He also prayed for peace in Nigeria to ensure national development.
No fewer than 16 heads of agencies, including that of the National Universities Commission, signed the agreement.
Others were the heads of National Board for Technical Education, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund and the National Commission for Colleges of Education.
