Federal Capital Territory, FCT minister, Nyesom Wike on Monday disclosed that the maintenance of the newly renovated Abuja International Conference Centre AICC will no longer be left in the hands of politicians in order to maintain the fidelity of the multibillion Naira structure.
Wike stated this after inspecting some of the 17 projects slated for commissioning from June 10.
The minister who also explained how he was able to navigate bureaucratic bottlenecks to deliver on the projects, said he has a standing policy of ensuring that top civil servants who might want to frustrate the Renewed Hope Agenda are sent to Siberia.
Speaking on facility maintenance of the AICC, Wike said; “The centre will be maintained by Julius Berger, the company that built it. We are not going to give it to any other politician to manage. Maintenance is a significant challenge in this country, and we are committed to doing things differently.
“The agreement with Julius Berger will ensure that maintenance is done properly. We are working on the details, and once the agreement is signed, we will make sure that anyone who uses the Centre pays for maintenance.
“Don’t worry about the new technology; the company that provided it will handle maintenance. The staff working there are Nigerians who have been supervised by us. The technology is not complicated, and we will start operations soon after commissioning.”
While he conceded that bureaucracy can be a challenge, the minister said he has been able to communicate his vision to the civil service and that they have keyed into it, knowing full well the implications of doing otherwise.
He said; “Everything revolves around leadership. When leadership has set out goals and objectives to be achieved and the leadership is committed to it, you could be assured that that will be achieved. Prudent financial management is key. Nobody can claim that he has all the resources in the world, but the ability to manage it prudently is what is important.
“Bureaucracy, of course, is part of our problems, but again, when you sit down with people and let them know that this is what you want to achieve and that you are not going to accept anything less than that, they will key in. That is why I said leadership is the hallmark of everything. Without it, you can’t achieve anything.
“I have my people, the civil servants who are there and they understand the vision that the minister wants to achieve for Mr President, they have to key in. If they don’t key in, of course, we have to take a decision. You can see that I don’t waste time in telling any director who has not done well to say look, there is no law that says you must be here, since you want to relax, I take you to where you will be relaxed, you will not see any job to be done and then that will affect your promotion. So, all of them who know this have keyed into the vision and they have done well. It is not magic but a matter of understanding and communicating with them about what you want”, he explained.
