Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), asked permanent secretaries in his ministry to bow before President Bola Tinubu.
Wike performed the act on Tuesday at the inauguration of the arterial road N20.
The road has since been renamed after Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate.
During the event, the minister elicited laughter from the audience after he instructed permanent secretaries to leave their seats and bow before Tinubu as a show of appreciation for their appointments.
“Most of them have never dreamt in their lives that they will ever get to the peak of their careers,” Wike said.
“So if you permit me, I don’t know those beneficiaries, the permanent secretaries, I don’t know whether they are here. Come out, come out.
“You are the beneficiary here, come out. You are supposed to be the agent of renewed hope. Come out, come out.
“Both women, both men, everyone, face here and take a bow before Mr. President. The lucky ones. Your Excellency, these are the first set of permanent secretaries that you made.
“Head of service, are you not a permanent secretary? And that is their head of service. These are the technical teams now that we have. So I want to sincerely thank you.
“Now, most of them have been going to churches and mosques. They have been praying that God should help them to be head of service. But it was not there before.
“For them to be head of service, it was not available. But now you have made it available. I know some of their pastors who have been praying for them.
“So I also told them that they should pray for me to recommend them to you. That is also very important.
“Your Excellency, this road was awarded in 2020, in fact, this is the fastest. Not the one that was awarded 15 years ago, 16 years ago.
“It was awarded in 2020 at the cost of N30.6 billion and luckily, this is the one that has never had variations.”
On March 12, Tinubu appointed Atang Samuel as head of the civil service and permanent secretaries in the FCT.
The permanent secretaries are Adam Babagana (north-east), Wanki Adamu Ibrahim (north-east), Asmau Mukhtar (north-west), Dogo Bodinga (north-west), Olusa Olusegun (south-west), Adetoyi Rabiu Kolawole (south-west), Grace Adayilo (north-central), Olubunmi Olowookere (north-central), Ibe Prospect Chukwuemeka (south-east), and Okonkwo Florence Nonubari (south-south).(The Cable)
