The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has craved the support of stakeholder in the ministry so as to achieve the agenda of the President Muhammadu Buhari on health.
Adewole made the call when he spoke to journalists shortly after he assumed duty with the Minister of State for Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, in Abuja today.
Adewole who also held brief meeting with the directors, said: “for the apex policy on health to be achieved, we need to work together and working together means we can make a huge difference.
“We have been described as a generation that enjoyed better health when we were young than now and our aim is to bring back the health care system we enjoyed when we were young."
The minister assured that a number of restructuring would be carried out for the present administration to achieve its target on health.
“There are quite a number of restructuring that we need to do to ensure that the next generation enjoy something better.
“We will need to look at how we can work with other tiers of government, the secondary and primary health care system.
“This means that we need to work with the state and local government, but the leadership will rest in the ministry and we will provide the direction," he stated.
Adewole also assured that the women and child health care would be given adequate attention.
As stated by him, this would be achieved by equipping the Teaching Hospitals and setting targets and roadmap in the next four weeks to enable us tell what had been achieved.
On his part, Ehanire stated the aim of the present administration was to deliver health care services from the grassroots level to the federal.
He stated that the ministry had enormous challenge since health was important for everybody.
The minister of state stated that the ministry would work with what was on ground because of paucity of funds, adding that “the essence of efficiency is being able to manage things prudently”.
The new Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Amina Shamaki, pledged that the staff would give the ministers all the support they needed to succeed.
In the same vein, the newly-inaugurated Minister of Power, Works and Housing, former Lagos governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), stated his thoughts are on how to bring together processes and activities of all the Ministries now put under his supervision for effective service delivery.
He made this disclosure in a close-door session with the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Louis Edozien, and Directors charging them on the way forward in tackling the enormous tasks ahead.
The former governor promised the Ministry’s leadership of his willingness to learn from them as they are career people who have been on the job for a long time.
Fashola said: “We are here to work with you in solving problems on ground as quickly as possible.
“We want to know if some of those problems are man-made or systemic.
“We want information on what has been done, what remained to be done and what are the future plans, we want to continue from there.”
The Minister also indicated his in how best to harness the available human resource assets in the Ministry and the physical asset, “as all these information will assist us as we hit the ground running."
“We need to do more so as to regain lost time.”
Fashola stated Nigerians are anxiously waiting for results, which in this case is improved power supply nationwide.
Also speaking, the Minister of State, Power, Works and Housing, Alhaji Mustapha Baba Shehuri, stated as a matter of urgency, he wants a detailed Ministerial Briefing Document to serve as a guide as this will ensure proper take off.
The Director of Human Resources in the Ministry, Grace Papka, gave copies of the requested documents to the two Ministers.
This was in addition to a time-table for proposed briefings by Departments and Agencies in the power sector.
The Minister for Transportation, Rt Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, also swung into action immediately after the inauguration as he pledged to complete all ongoing rail projects around the country and extend rail lines to all parts of the country.
Although, the ex Rivers state governor stated he will resume work fully on Nov. 17 when the new Permanent Secretary, Mr Sabiu Zakari, would equally assume duty at the ministry.
Amaechi stated his meeting with the Permanent Secretary and the Directors on Nov. 17 would begin by looking at the budget and its level of implementation.
He stated the meeting which he deemed necessary will be hinged on charting a new course toward completing all ongoing projects, especially the rail and extending it to different part of the country.
Amaechi who called for cooperation from all parastatals and agencies of the ministry and the aviation sector, promised to ensure a smooth working relationship with the Minister of State for Aviation for the development of the sector as well as meeting the expectations of Nigerians.
The minister also urged the staff to always play by rule, adding that “I belief in principles of discharging my duties.”
“We are interested in completing all ongoing rail projects around the country because we don’t want to disappoint Nigerians.
“It is important that we realise that we have a mandate to deliver on our promises and there is competition among the ministers to deliver and we don’t want to take last," he stated.
Amaechi also emphasised on the issue of corruption, warning that anybody that would work with him must not approach him for money.
In his own speech, the Minister of State for Aviation, Mr. Hadi Sirika, stated that it was an era of new thinking for the actualisation of the change agenda of the Federal Government.
Sirika added that the era of talking tough without acting was over, stressing that whatever was stated was what would be done.
He assured that Buhari’s administration would deliver on its promises, adding that the government was aware of the high hope and expectation of Nigerians.
Sirika, however, pledged to ensure a harmonious working relationship with the Minister of Transportation to achieve results in the implementation of policies and programmes.
Also, the Permanent Secretary, who was also appointed by the president on Tuesday, expresses optimism that the new ministers would deliver on the visions and missions of the change agenda of the government.
Zakari pledged to give maximum cooperation to the new ministers to assist them in the discharge of their duties effectively.