The Presidential Campaign Organisation in Ogun State have noted with disappointment the now familiar reference of the Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun to ‘overbloated’ workforce in the state’s civil service with a promise to downsize if he is re-elected in the 2015 general elections.
We condemn this in strong terms because this has the further potential to create more social, economic and security challenges in the state and throw many families into hardships which they did not bargain for.
We are of the opinion that retrenchment of workers is the greatest height of insincerity which portrays the Ogun State government as being grossly insensitive and incompetent, at a time when global best practices in public administration is about putting many more people to work as a means of empowerment and reduction of poverty.
We found it hard to believe that a government which on several occasions publicly acknowledged that its Internally Generated Revenue alone had hit the N6 billion mark would complain on inability to pay workers’ salaries and that the only available option left is to contemplate a mass sack of workers. This is gross incompetence as we believe that the total take-home package of all the workers in the state is far less than this amount, and added to this is the monthly allocation from the Federation Account.
The PDPPCO sympathize with the Ogun State workers, especially on account of the untold hardship they have been subjected to under the Senator Ibikunle Amosun led administration with unremitted deductions to Cooperative societies and pension contributions which had denied them access to the much needed loans with which they plan to improve on their living standards, promising that a PDP government when elected into office will rectify all these and redress the injustice.
Rather than downsize, the PDP shall employ more and create several more jobs as to reduce the acute level of unemployment in the state by expanding the scope of government business and attract more investors to the state.
