The Acting Executive Secretary, National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Mr. Louis Eriomala has said there is need for staff to have passion for the job and develop themselves for effective performance.
Eriomala who made this known on Tuesday, July 16, 2019 during a meeting with Management and staff at the Institute’s headquarters in Abuja, maintained that if staff must make meaningful contributions and add value to the service, they must make conscious efforts to improve themselves.
“If the passion is not there, there is nothing you can do. We don’t have that work ethic but of a truth, we need to get interested in the job first and assess ourselves because without training yourself for self development, you are not adding value to yourself but if you do so, you can be marketable”.
The Acting ES has also directed that a committee be set up to draft condition of service for the Institute. The committee will have all Directors as members. Others are; Mrs. Jane Anigala (Deputy Director, Admin) who will serve as Secretary as well as the two union leaders; Comrades James Adediran and Jacob Gwautsa.
He also disclosed that Management will soon review the existing policy that any staff who wants to further his or her education must first attend the Institute’s training school before he or she can get approval for further education. On the policy where members of staff who perform well at the training school get promoted to the next level, Eriomala said the policy was initiated to encourage staff to attend the training school programme, stressing that he prefers all staff to write promotion examination so as to create a level playing ground.
In his words “It is wrong to insist that one must go through training school before he or she can go for further education. Also, the issue of getting promotion using the training school was just to encourage people to go to the training school but if I have my way, everybody will write the promotion exam”, he said.
While expressing displeasure over staff general attitude to work, especially in the areas of attendance; punctuality; indiscipline; productivity; and dress code, Eriomala directed that henceforth, the attendance register for every department should be taken away from noon to 3:15pm, which according to him, will not only help to identify staff that leave the office before closing time but also ensure punctuality and discourage absenteeism.
He however agreed with some of the limitations identified by members of staff as part of the reasons for low productivity, especially the working conditions and means of transportation for members of staff and promised to put in measures to ameliorate the situation.
Speaking on the issue of dress code in the Institute, Eriomala lamented over the poor level of compliance saying it appears most staff are finding it burdensome. “What is the problem with dressing Nigeria Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays? I have found out that it is burdensome for most of you. I hear that some of you are asking for dress allowance. Even if our traditional fabrics are more expensive, I believe if you can be patient, you will gradually acquire them”, he said.
He also disclosed that the staff bus undergoing repairs will be returned to Nyanya route in the FCT to ease movement of staff to work while the Institute look forward to procure more buses that will be on other routes to convey staff to work, subject to improved funding by government.
“We’ll continue to upgrade every year. This year, we’ve been able to improve on a lot of things but I know more needs to be done. Our overhead is little but we pray for improved funding. The generator set for instance is big and consumes a lot of diesel and we cannot afford to buy diesel all round”.
Responding to a suggestion for the Institute to buy a small transformer to power the office, the NICO Boss said Management will look into the matter, promising that before the end of December, 2019, a transformer will be procured to overcome the challenge of poor power supply.
Caleb Nor
Media Asst.-Ag.ES
NICO HQTRS
Abuja, FCT