Amosun warns Ogun civil servants against partisan politics

…You’re the best in the country, says Governor

http://www.gatewaymail.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Ogun-State-Governor-Senator-Ibikunle-Amosun..jpg

 

NIGERIA: OGUN State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has warned civil servants in the state to distance themselves from partisan politics.

Amosun cautioned that he wouldn’t allow anyone to change the status of the civil service in the state by mixing politics with their job.

“I did mention that the best we can do is to spend eight years, and many of them would spend 35 years and because of that, when we came, we embraced them and we will still continue to do,” the governor said while addressing journalists at his Okemosan Office, Abeokuta after the strike embarked upon by the state workers was suspended.

He added: “I make bold to say and I will continue to say that Ogun State Civil Service, we are the best in Nigeria and we would continue to be, but when you see some few, that I have to take on, I did and I want that to be on record.”

“But clearly, we should not mix what we are doing, civil service with politics, that is where I feel so very infuriated and I still do,” Amosun said, adding: “As a governor, I swear that I will do the best for the people of Ogun State and I will continue to do that, but we will not allow politics because this is Ogun State.”

The Governor also emphasised: “And the civil service, I respect all of them, they know even when seemingly we should say something, I would not say it and even my colleagues, they will challenge me, ‘these your people you’re talking about, are they saints?  I would say, ‘we are Ogun State.”

“You will see me saying that the civil service in Ogun State, we are the best and if we see few people that want to change that, you must let them know and you must be very hard,” the two-term Governor stated.

He boasted that his administration remained the best to praise the civil servants since the creation of the state till date.

The Governor said that the state workers were the best in the country, adding that he was always proud of them.

According to him, no Governor, either dead or alive, had massaged the ego and patronise the civil servants more than him, while urging the Labour leaders to always show understanding when there are challenges in government.

“Let me put on record that I have checked and I am still checking that no governor, dead or alive in Ogun State, has either patronised or massaged the ego of our civil servants the way I did,” Amosun declared.

He, however, apologised to the labour leaders and the country for drawing attention to the state for wrong reasons during the strike.

The Governor said: “Unfortunately, I don’t like to do things like this, this would be the second and I pray this would be the last that we would be in the media for wrong reasons.

“Remember, I have to apologise like this on behalf of the good people of the state to not just only the labour leaders, but to the entire nation because attention has been drawn wrongly to us in Ogun State.  So, we want to be on the pages of newspaper for right reasons.”

Amosun stressed: “On behalf of the good people of the state, I am tendering this apology that we are Ogun State and we are the first to have access to education and even the civil service that we talk about, I remember our forebears set up so many.”

It would be recalled that the civil servants had called off their two weeks old strike after they reached truce Wednesday with the government, led by the state Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, following the intervention of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) led by the National President, Comrade Ayuba Waba.

The meeting that lasted for nine hours was held at the Governor’s Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, the state capital.

Also at the meeting – where Memorandum of Understanding was signed – were the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Yetunde Onanuga, Head of Service, Elder Sola Adeyemi, Secretary to State Government, Barrister Taiwo Adeoluwa, Mr. Wale Osinowo, Commissioner for Finance, and Mrs. M.T.O. Dosunmu, Permanent Secretary Bureau of Establishment and Training).

On the labour side in attendance were Comrade Bobboi Kaigama of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Biodun Olakanmi (Chairman, JNC), Akeem Ambali (Chairman, NLC) and Bunmi Fajobi (Chairman, TUC).

In the eight-point communique agreed upon, government concurred to pay the workers’ deductions with November 2016 salary, release global deductions every 90 days and as soon as bullet payment is receive from the federal government and the state revenue improves, and that outstanding deductions shall be paid on or before May 2017.