In his speech on Wednesday, former President Goodluck Jonathan said only leaders with vision could do what he (Governor Godwin Obaseki) had done, as he praised Governor Obaseki for his visionary leadership and the reforms he had done in the civil and public service sectors of Edo State.
On his part, Governor Obaseki said, “I vowed to rebuild the secretariat on my first day at work as governor”.
Also, the former President commended the new minimum wage introduced by the Obaseki administration, which he said would now make workers’ salaries take them home.
Former President Jonathan said this when he inaugurated the completed Civil Service Secretariat Complex in Sapele Road, Benin City, and the foundation laying ceremony of a 1,500-capacity auditorium in the complex.
The event attracted political bigwigs in the state including the deputy governor, Marvellous Omobayo, the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Blessing Agbebaku, Chief Judge of the state, Justice Andrew Okungbowa, the state chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, Tony Aziegbemi, the governorship candidate of the party, Asue Ighodalo and his running mate, Osardoion Ogie, and several others.
Jonathan also praised Obaseki for offering automatic employment for all First-Class graduates of Edo extraction from any university in the world.
He said, “Listening to the history of this secretariat complex; I now know the power of vision, it takes somebody who wants to do the best for his people to do this because where you are working needs to be clean; human beings need to work in a comfortable environment.
“When the Head of Service mentioned the First-Class graduates you have employed, I was quite pleased. If you go to some states, governors are busy encouraging criminals because of politics, people that will rig elections for them, carry ballot boxes, carry knives and cutlasses to pursue people but you are encouraging the brains in Edo State, the brains don’t come from one political party, the brains come from all the political parties, the brains come from those that are supporting different candidates so you are not supporting these brains because you want to win elections but because you want to build a state and for you to build a state, you have to build the people so I want to sincerely appreciate that vision.”
On his part, Obaseki said he decided to rebuild the facility on his first day at work as governor when he visited the secretariat which was an eyesore.
On the minimum wage the governor said it was not a fluke as his administration had planned for it “I have heard all the accolades about our increase in our minimum wage we want to assure civil servants that it is not a fluke, we are a very deliberate government that sit back to do our work and you know that for seven and half years or more since we came into office we pay salaries on the 26th of every month and when there are holidays we pay before the holidays for our civil servants to celebrate and in that same guise, we will pay the Salah for June on Friday ahead of Salah.”
The governor said “What we are commissioning here today has transformed the landscape of this city, it represents the future of what we want our city and our state to look like, it represents how we want to run our affairs in Edo now and into the future because what matters most is productivity, efficiency and excellence.
“This is a painstaking process which has included a total overhaul of how the public service in Edo operates, we have now built a workforce that will drive change and advancement in the pursuit of the core values of our democracy and good governance.
“After I secured my mandate to govern Edo State in November 2016, this complex, specifically Palm House was the first place I visited on the first day I started work and what I saw was an eyesore, this premises was in very bad shape, the building was decrepit, their public utilities had all failed. That day I made the pledge to them, to myself and to God that I will build the infrastructure of this secretariat and today by the grace of God we are here to see for ourselves what we have done. From barely finding spaces to do their work, from a very shameful situation, where civil servants could not use the bathrooms in their offices, today our workers now spend more time in their offices than they do at home and this is boosting productivity and efficiency.”
