BENIN CITY- Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has described the Permanent Secretaries in the state as the driving force behind the massive success of his administration in the past six years.
The Governor made this known when he received 2014 batch of Permanent Secretaries sworn in on the 24th of July 2014 in Government House Yesterday.
Oshiomhole said, “Let me thank you for your thought in taken time out to reason to say thank you. To me it wasn’t a favor. Government needs to have Permanent Secretaries. Even though this appointment is at the discretion of the Governor but like you rightly remarked, it is the highest professional level ion the Civil Service besides the Head of Service (HOS).
“If it is professional, the operative word is competence and not political patronage and when people merit something and they get it, we haven’t really done then any favor because it imposes on you a level of responsibility and huge challenges particularly in the face of dwindling resources and rising expectation.
“I should rather thank you for accepting to be part of the workaholic group, tolerating my own excesses, a man that is impatient and wants everything done over night, you must be perfect, no excuses, no stories but the truth is I appreciate the fact that you drive the Civil Service very hard to meet all that we have had to do”.
Oshiomhole continued, “When we talk of due process in government, we talk of transparency and accountability, we are simply talking of getting the Civil Service to work according to the rules and you are the ones responsible for all these processes. So if we have been appreciated and acknowledged, you are actually the silent people who are sometimes seen but never heard and I am very grateful for what God is using you to help us to achieve in the state.
“I also know for a fact because of the way we manage our funds, when you compare yourselves to your brothers somewhere very close, you might think that you are grossly underprivileged but I trust that you will understand that if we have discretion, we will do better”, he said.
Oshiomhole expressed his appreciation to the Permanent Secretaries adding that Edo people appreciates their efforts as the history of the state will not be completed without their names.
Gov. Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole
