By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan.
Civil servants in Oyo State are now in fears over the insistence of the state government to restructure the 105,000 workforce in its payroll.
Already, most of the serving civil servants in Oyo State are presently tagging the planned restructuring as an indirect way of forcing some of the workers out of the state civil service.
New Nigerian gathered that despite Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s assurance that the planned restructuring of the workforce will not be turned into retrenchment, some of the workers are envisaging that more heads would soon roll in the state civil service.
Our investigations revealed that the workers fear became heightened over the weekend when Governor Ajimobi at social function by the Ajorosun club in Ibadan raised the issue again.
Speaking at the function, Governor Abiola Ajimobi
declared that the planned
restructuring of the workforce was aimed at enhancing its productivity saying for now, many workers in the state civil service were unproductive.
According to Governor Ajimobi, the restructuring would place each worker where he or she would be more productive, adding, “we want to ensure that every worker has something doing and doing well for government to justify his or her salary”.
“You know, we have three types of workers. We have workers who have the expertise and are ready to work. We have those without expertise, but are ready to learn and work. We also have those who don’t have the expertise and are not ready to work or learn. We want to ensure that every worker has something doing and doing well for government to justify his or her salary.
Today, we need to drive our revenue to be self-sufficient,” he said.
The governor added that the restructuring was also the “reason for the government to strengthen its educational system, because development is knowledge-based”.
While stressing that “a knowledge-based economy produces development, Governor Ajimobi said there was the need to develop to be able to compete around the globe, saying, “if we keep doing same thing all the time, we will continue to have same result.”
Commenting on the fact that the just suspended strike drew the state backward, he urged the workers to always embrace dialogue, saying “we told them all that is available to pay salaries, but they did not believe us.
“They embarked on the strike based on speculations that we were not sincere. Today, we have shown all to them and now they have seen that we are sincere and transparent on all we have told them. I pray that God rewards me based on my action towards the workers. If I lied to them, God will reward me and if I am sincere to them, God should continue to answer their prayers for me”.
He then solicited the support of the workers for the state’s growth in the face of the economic downturn.
Reacting to the planned restructuring of the civil service, Oyo State wing of the Trade Union Congress, in a statement signed by its Acting Chairman, Comrade Emelieze Andrew and the PRO Comrade Ilesanmi Lawrence kicked against the planned restructuring of the civil service.
According to TUC, “the recent pronouncement by the state government to restructure the public service” was aimed at sacking workers in the state.
