I wasn’t made NAN MD by accident - Ali M Ali

Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), says his appointment as the Chief Executive of the Agency was not by accident.

Ali said this when he received members of the NAN Staff Bus Management Committee in his office on Thursday in Abuja.

“Any time I see a NAN staff bus with the agency’s logo, I feel a sense of kingship, so I have a long-term relationship with the agency.

“I chose to be at NAN because I know a lot about the agency, just like I didn’t become a journalist by accident,” he said.

Ali, a former managing director of the Peoples Daily Newspaper, said his plan was to take the agency to an enviable height as the pioneer new agency in Africa.

“I know a lot about the challenges in NAN; we have some plans to address these challenges, and some of the plans will begin to manifest in due course.

“It is the duty of any organisation to ease the burden of transportation on the staff members.

“Mobility is very important in any organisation because you need to get the job of the day done.

“The management is duty-bound to ensure that the committee's morale is boosted through prompt releases of funds,” he said.

Ali, also a former editor of the triumph newspaper, Kano, said, however, that the management’s intervention would be based on the availability of resources.

“Our style is to be as transparent as possible; the rising cost of fuel has limited the movement of people either at the individual or corporate level.

“The reality is that some people are working from home, and you need work tools to work from home.These are some of the things we need to change if we have the willpower.

“What I am saying is that things will not continue this way; the management is willing to ensure that whatever resource is available is allowed to go around.

"Together, there’s a lot we can achieve; divided, we can’t achieve anything,” he said.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Malam Ali Baba-Inuwa, said the visit was to congratulate the new MD on his appointment and to seek his assistance towards ensuring that the NAN staff buses were kept on the road.