‘My watchword is transparency’ — Keyamo assumes duty as aviation minister

By Abubakar Yunusa

Festus Keyamo, the new minister of aviation and aerospace development, has asked staff members to work together harmoniously in order to advance the ministry.
Speaking in Abuja, Keyamo said effective collaboration of workers in the ministry will enhance output.
“Thank you for the warm welcome. The president did not send me here by mistake. I think he has clear ideas as to why he sent me here. I will need your maximum cooperation to make us succeed,” Keyamo said.
“I have read your roadmap developed in 2016, read it thoroughly, point for point. Our intention is not to disrupt things that have been done so well. Government is a continuum.
“If there are things that have not been done properly within the road map, we may look at them again.”
Keyamo, who said he liked the aviation roadmap structure, said that he would like to know the stage of completion of its objectives and achievements.
“Like I said, government is a continuum, it is the same party that is in power. There are things that have been done properly. There are things that have not been done properly,” he said.
“Things that are still in the pipeline, we will look at all of these. My intention is to get my briefings within the few days or weeks. We will do this thoroughly as we can.
“We will develop our ideas and take it to the President for approval so that we can kick off. That is what I intend to do here.”
Keyamo said Nigerians need to be aware of what the ministry was doing.
“For me, my watchword will be transparency here. At every point in time, the Nigerian people want to understand what we are doing. Nothing will be done in secrecy,” he said.
“They must understand what we are doing. We must carry them along so that we will not have the kind of complaints we had in the past.
“We should be as open as possible because we are serving the Nigerian people. My history is people oriented from private practice to public office.
“Nigerians may not know the work you have been doing behind especially in terms of safety of passengers in the aviation environment. But, they may appreciate the few things they see.
“We will look at all these to see how we can improve on them.”
On his part, Emamanuel Meribole, permanent secretary, aviation ministry, described Keyamo as a result and target oriented leader.
He expressed the readiness of the employees in the ministry to work with Keyamo to boost the aviation sector.