Chief Of Staff (COS) to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, has warned civil servants in the State House against leaking official letters or sitting on files in the name of bureaucracy to avoid sanctions.
The COS gave the warning during a send forth of four members of staff who were either retired, redeployed or posted to foreign missions.
He disclosed that he had already been confronted with a copy of letter with his signature, indicating that someone from his office had snuck it out.
“We cannot tolerate is letters and information going out of this office. I have seen one with my signature shown to me. Anything that is written, it will come out anyway; it is not a secret; but the bad thing is for it to come out before it is publicly made by the relevant authorities.
“So please don’t fall into this trap of somebody asking you to bring a letter, because if by accident you are found or the letter traced to you clearly it would not be something that we would tolerate,” he said.
Kyari urged those left behind to be disciplined, work at moving correspondences faster, being more dedicated to their duties and shun office gossips. Once things settle well with a new constituted team, the turn-around for any mail should not be more than 48 hours, he added.
“If you think you can’t turn it out within 48 hours then I should know why why. Maybe you have to ask some questions from somewhere,” he said.
The COS urged the workers to embrace the wind of change of the administration cautioning them not to abuse the privilege of working in the State House through mischief.
“This office is not about giving contracts. This office is not about peddling influence. This office is not about being paid to make somebody see the President,’’ he said .
He charged them to protect the President’s integrity adding “I do not want anything that will touch his integrity.
“So I have to protect that regardless of what anybody says,’’ he added.
He also advised those on posting to be Nigeria’s ambassadors regardless of their designation.
The Permanent Secretary in the State House, Jalal Arabi, who also spoke at the brief event, praised the hounourees for their dedication and advised those on posting to utilize the knowledge and experience gathered in their last posting to project the country.
On behalf of the officers, Badamasi Gamawa, who retired at 60, thanked his colleagues for the honour and gave them the assurance that they would benefit from the discipline, punctuality, forthrightness of both the COS and Permanent Secretary.
Others honoured were Kabiru Bala and Alexander AJayi, on external posting to Bangkok, Thailand and New York, respectively as well as Ohoji Okoko and Joseph Ochogwu, returning to Ministry of Health and Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, respectively.
Elizabeth Archibong
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