The Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Chief (Mrs) Monisade Afuye, has declared that Governor Biodun Oyebanji’s administration is initiating policies that are gradually exterminating mediocrity and ineptitude out of the civil service to make it stronger and more productive to serve as dependable engineroom of governance.
Mrs Afuye said this in Ado Ekiti, today, during the unveiling and launching of a Journal dubbed “The Public Servant”, initiated by the Ekiti State Local Government Service Commission.
Mrs Afuye, in a statement by her Media Aide, Victor Ogunje, said this accounted for why Governor Oyebanji initiated some far-reaching and positively impactful policies and programmes like prompt payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities to motivate the serving and retired public servants.
“Part of what this government is looking towards is to ensure that it leaves a civil service that can deliver as part of its enduring legacies. The governor believes in promoting meritocracy, rather than mediocrity in service and this reflected in the appointments this government has made in the service.
“Governor Oyebanji has the desire of making the civil service well motivated and make it a place where workers are computer-compliant, where all entitlements like salaries, pensions, gratuities and promotion are considered priorities of government, so that people can be motivated to work and deliver”.
The Deputy Governor applauded the brains behind the journal, chiefly conceived to propagate the policies and programmes of Governor Oyebanji’s administration and its development strides across all the sectors of the economy.
She said the unveiling of this journal further amplified the evidence substantiating Governor Oyebanji’s desire to making the civil service more responsive to the discharge of its onerous duties to the people of the State .
Mrs Afuye said: “I know and I am convinced that this journal will help in promoting and propagating the good exploits Governor Oyebanji is making in the areas of civil service restructuring, as vividly manifested in prompt payment of salaries, pensions, gratuities and other benefits due to workers and retirees.
“It will also reflect and promote other areas of interest like prompt and timely promotion of workers and payment of all associated benefits, encouragement of Inter-Cadre movement, provision of employment to the citizens , robust and smooth government-civil servants’ relations and other initiatives geared toward making Ekiti civil service a model in the comity of states.
“It is my humble belief that the journal will also play a pivotal role as a government’s megaphone to sensitise our citizens on the six pillars of government and how Governor Oyebanji has been walking the talk to touch each of the pillars to accelerate development and increase the standard of living of every Ekiti resident.”
The Head of Service, Engr Sunday Komolafe, represented by the Permanent Secretary in charge of General Administration, Mr. Shittu M.A, urged the LGSC to ensure the sustainability of the journal via cognate intellectual and professional contributions to the media outfit.
Also speaking, a legal Icon and father of the day, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), promised to support the media outfit financially to bolster its sustainability.
Babalola, represented by the Chairman of Ido/Osi Local Government, Dr. Sola Ogunsina, urged the initiators to ensure that the journal thrives by being diligent and a bit professional in the handling of its editorials.
Expressing the rationale behind the conceptualisation of the journal, the Permanent Secretary, Ekiti State LGSC, who doubles as the Chairman/Publisher of the media outfit, Mr. Babatunde Jegede, said the journal will help in showcasing the good works the government is undertaking at the grassroots.
Jegede stated that the journal is loaded with logically organised articles and newstories centred around the government’s events prosecuted in line with the vision of Governor Oyebanji’s policy and how positively effective those achievements have been.
The Permanent Secretary lauded Governor Oyebanji for approving a whooping sum of N200 million for the recapitalization of the local government Loans’ Board, saying this would go a mileage in motivating the workers to deliver more in their duty posts.
Reeling out the contents of the journal’s maiden edition, Jegede said: “The activities of the chairmen of the local government and LCDAs are given prominence being critical partners in the running of a local government system.
“Equally, the economic potentials and tourist attractions at the grassroots are equally given a critical focus, because we all owe it a duty to promote our state and the potentials therein to the outside world”.
