Barely three months to the November 11th governorship election in Imo State, civil servants in the state have resolved to re-elect Governor Hope Uzodinma for his second term in office.
They insisted that under Uzodinma’s regime, they have never had it so good in terms of attention given to their welfare by the government.
The resolution of the Imo workers to reelect Uzodimma was communicated to him on Friday when he paid a working visit to the Imo State Secretariat in Owerri.
Speaking on behalf of the workers, the Head of Service, Barr. Raymond Ucheoma described the Governor as God sent.
He said: “You are a messiah personified, the Imo civil servants will forever remain grateful to the Governor for the numerous things they have enjoyed under his tenure. Such as mass promotion of workers, 13th-month salary payment, free transportation, free medical treatment, regular payment of salary, conducive work environment, training and retraining of workers, among others.”
Ucheoma noted that their joy is rooted in the fact that the governor has a Midas hand, in which whatever it touches changes for good.
He said: “We are therefore indeed very grateful that our dear indefatigable workaholic governor found time out of his busy schedule to visit the factory and milling machine of government policies in the state.”
As workers in the Imo State Public Service, according to him, civil servants have every reason to be thankful to the Governor adding that during his maiden visit to the Secretariat in January 2020, he promised to make the office conducive for work and he kept this promise by re-roofing the 10 blocks of offices.
He said that the governor also replaced toilet facilities and repainted the buildings, rehabilitated the water scheme, repaired the four giant generator sets, and caused the restoration of public power supply to the secretariat amongst others.
He said that the governor completed the abandoned walkway thereby connecting all the buildings in the secretariat.
He said: “It is on record that Your Excellency, the governor not only gave brand new vehicles to Permanent Secretaries but also provided free bus service for the workers of Imo State.”
The HOS said that the governor streamlined the payment of workers’ salaries and all workers now receive salaries on the same date irrespective of workplace adding that he also approved waivers for the employment of workers in some critical areas especially, in the justice and health sectors.
He recalled that the recruitment of primary school teachers in the states had commenced in earnest coupled with the governor’s benevolent approval, and the backlog of workers’ promotions had been cleared with some benefitting from three promotions while most of them had two promotions.
In his speech earlier after the commissioning of the newly renovated walkways to the 10 blocks of offices at the secretariat, the Governor acknowledged the fidelity of the civil servants to his administration, said it was their support that encouraged him to fulfill all he promised them in 2020 when he assumed office, and the desire to do more.
He recalled his promises such as to reinvigorate and restore the dignity of civil service through regular payment of salary and benefits, to give the civil servants a comfortable environment to carry out their works among other things.
Uzodimma reminded them that he had even gone ahead to do things he did not promise such as payment of 13th-month salary. “I want to tell you that I will still do more.”
He told them of his plans to increase the number of buses to the civil servants next week and noted that he “cares for civil servants and always wants the best for them.”
He said: “I feel fulfilled when civil servants ride on their executive vehicles to office. The civil service is the engine of the government hence the need to elevate the working environment of the civil servants.”
The governor observed that the regular payments of salaries and pensions have enhanced the economy of the State and promised that the arrangement is in the advanced stage to pay the gratuity of retired Imo workers.
He charged the civil servants to resist the temptation of being used by agents of Satan to destabilise the government and the state all in the name of politics while warning them to be wary of temptations that will come their way as the governorship elections draw nearer and advised them to, no matter the threats, resist such temptations.
According to him, no civil servants will be victimised for exercising their rightful franchise as he appealed to them to stay away from evil dowers.
He said: “Imo State today is a new Imo and we will stop at nothing to recover the state.”
He said: “The new Imo can be exemplified in Imo having more universities where our children can gain admissions without much struggle. The new Imo has empowered Imo youths and will continue to empower them through the Skill-Up project. The new Imo is dredging Oguta to Orashi to the Atlantic Ocean, a project that will bring and generate a lot of economic activities and in the end create over one million jobs for the people of Imo state and beyond.”
He asked the civil servants to be mindful of pretenders who want to tell them how they will make Imo better without any proper plan as he insisted that the insecurity in Imo State is politically motivated.
However, he assured that there will be enough security in Imo State for the November 11 election.
He advised the civil servants to shine their eyes and never lose sight of the government’s several welfare schemes for them, assuring that he would not leave the civil service behind.
On the current issues at hand which is subsidy removal and its consequences, he noted that he was aware of how prices of goods and services have risen astronomically, making lives unbearable, while he assured civil servants that the government will soon come to their rescue by giving them some palliatives by way of food items.
He said that government has constituted a committee made up of the Head of Service and others to work out modalities for the distribution of palliatives in the state.
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