Ahead of Wednesday’s declaration of his second term bid, Civil Servants in Kwara State have endorsed the State Governor, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed for a second term in office.
This emerged at an interactive session Governor Ahmed had with senior civil servants in the State where the Chairman of the Trade Union Congress in Kwara State, Comrade Kola Olumoh said in view of the outstanding performances of Governor Ahmed and being the only aspirant who has presented himself to the civil service, the Governor truly deserves their support.
In what Comrade Olumoh christened as “second term, upward review”, the labour leader added that the governor should not forget his promise that his second term would usher in upward review of the welfare of civil servants.
In his own remarks, the Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Umar Farouk Akanbi urged the Governor to resolve some issues of concern to workers, especially those who bought Zenith Bank shares some years back but have not had their shares certificate.
Comrade Akanbi commended the State government on its workers’ friendly programmes and policies, such as the absorption of 50 disengaged staff of the Fadama programme in the State.
Responding, Governor Ahmed directed the Head of Service, Alhaji Mohammed Dabarako to compile the list of the affected civil servants in order to resolve the issue promptly.
Governor Ahmed also assured Civil Servant and other public sector workers in the State that their salaries would continued to be paid promptly despite the drastic shortfall in the monthly Federation Account Allocation to the State.
Dr Ahmed, who described the civil service as the most important instrument of service delivery for any government asserted that “no matter how low the allocations from the federation account may be, salaries of workers will be paid as at when due. As long as I sit here as Governor of Kwara State, I will ensure that your planning processes as civil servants are not distorted through irregular payment of salaries”.
The Governor added that despite the shortfall in federation account allocation, workers would not be retrenched, stressing that the welfare of workers would continue to be accorded upward review explaining that while earning from federation account has slided to about N2.4billion monthly, the state’s monthly commitments including salaries stand at about N2.7bn.
