Interior Minister to Ink Performance-Based Contracts with Agencies

The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, is set to sign a one-year performance contract with the agencies under the ministry.

The ministry’s one-of-a-kind move is to ensure a reorientation and renewal of the purpose, mandate, productivity, and efficiency of the six agencies under the ministry.

The signing of the performance bonds is expected to take place today (Tuesday) at the end of a review of the performances and projections of the agencies. It will mark the culmination of the ministry’s ongoing debut performance contracting retreat 2024.

The two-day retreat, taking place on Monday and Tuesday at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja, is themed “United Front for a Secure Nation and Future.”

“The role the ministry has to play is very key – security. Without security, you cannot talk about investment, tourism, industrialisation, stabilisation of the capital and money markets, employment and so on. There is no productivity without security.

“This means that what this ministry needs to achieve is very critical for the fulfilment of the president’s Renewed Hope Agenda,” the minister said in his opening remarks on Monday, adding that security is the benchmark for the nation’s projections and goals are benched on.

Agencies’ presentations

In rather highly interactive sessions, the agencies of the ministry – the Nigerian Correctional Services, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Federal Fire Service, the Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), and the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Board (CDCFIB) make their presentations to the minister, board members and participants, highlighting where they are now, what they hope to achieve in a year and how they intend to do so.

Their projections are then agreed on or reviewed upward or downward, depending on their capacity, as the purpose of the performance contract is to have not only productivity-driven expectations but realistic and achievable ones.

At the end of the critical review today (Tuesday), the minister will sign the performance bonds. There will then be a summary of the next steps, expected to include the introduction of a monitoring, execution, and performance-driving team.

Ministry’s performance

Mr Tunji-Ojo said the ministry’s achievements so far have been the result of hard work.

“For us, this is very key. What we have been able to achieve so far has been due to hard work. The reward for hard work, however, is more hard work. You have done well, but you can do better,” he told members of the agencies at the retreat.

“This is what this meeting is about. Leadership is about being audacious and having confidence, even when people are in doubt. Leadership is like a pyramid. You cannot survive at the top without the base’s help, which means that as Minister of Interior, I am only as useful as the least of my people is.

“The little drop of effort you think you are putting in is all it takes,” he said. Every little effort from each and every one of you is more important than you can imagine,” the minister said.