I want to give glory to the Almighty God for giving me the opportunity to be here with you this morning. Our state, Oyo, also has overwhelming reasons to appreciate the great restoration that He has wrought in its body polity, especially the opportunity He has given us to rekindle the strides of the great sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in the governance of the Western Region of Nigeria.
I am aware that the strides of today were borne out of your relentless and fervent prayers which you offered in your closets, tabernacles and in your heartfelt communion with the Almighty in the mosques. We must not delude ourselves: The glory that we all bask in today was largely due to the fact that the Almighty decided to answer the prayers that civil servants, the clergy and the generality of our people offered at dawn, in the scorching sun of the afternoon and at dusk, when crickets make their joyful noises to salute the darkness.
It is your prayers and intercessory vigils that made it possible for us to have a peaceful transition from one government to another.
I, however, want to appeal to our religious leaders that it is not yet Uhuru. It is now that we need your prayers, more than ever before, in line with the maxim that whatever God has made perfect requires prayers, in order for it not to lose its splendour; while in another breath, anything that has lost its splendour also requires prayers for it to be made perfect.
Having said these, I want to remind our religious leaders that the journey has just begun. Though God has answered our prayers by proclaiming a stop to the past years of the locusts, now, more than any other time, our intercessory prayers to God and involvement in the paddle of the ship of the state should be redoubled.
We have sworn to restore the sliding affairs of our dear state. As I said in my inaugural, our march to restoration requires a collective resolve to change our attitude to work and ethical standards. Commitment to hardwork, patriotism, respect for due process and diligence, as well as our general values would be needed at this critical point of our march to the restoration of Oyo State. I want to liken our situation as a people to the task of a builder entrusted with rebuilding a house from its ruins. The task will require determination, professionalism, unalloyed commitment and belief in the can-do spirit of man to make a difference in the face of expected odds.
The journey I’m talking about is a journey to make a difference in our dear Oyo state. The civil service is the focal point of that journey of restoration and transformation. Therefore, government will depend largely on the service – which is the hub of activities of any administration and the engine room of progress of any state – to execute and achieve its agenda of restoration and transformation.
As I enumerated in my inaugural, this administration will seek to restore the glory of Oyo State by working on the following priorities:
- Human Capital Development encompassing education, skill acquisition and healthcare delivery
- Infrastructure development
- Rural development and integration
- Revitalization and development of agriculture and agro-allied industry
- Promotion of security from a developmental perspective, through the provision of social inclusion and rule of law and;
- Democracy and good governance
The government can only achieve the above goals with the support and cooperation of the civil service.
One favour that Almighty God has bestowed on us in Oyo State is that we are fortunate to have inherited a very strong, reliable and professional civil service, which was a direct gift from the front-liners and founding fathers of the state. We recognize that no government can make headway if it belittles or looks down on the civil service. Not only will this government consciously refrain from being at the gathering of anyone who has no regard for the civil service, this administration will pursue the restoration of its lost glory.
We are, however, aware that our civil service is bedeviled with challenges. One of the first steps we will take as a government is to restore the sagging confidence that the Oyo civil servant has been forced to contend with in recent years. On the heels of this is a task that this government will undertake to expose our civil servants to appropriate in-service training programmes that will hone their skills and prepare them for efficient service delivery. One clear way of doing this, which we have devised, is to revolutionize the service in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), so as to make them faster, secure and more efficient in their delivery of services. I am by this alerting the civil service on the need to brace itself for the challenges of this restoration.
This administration’s plan to run an all-inclusive government is unshakeable and I therefore implore our workforce to join forces with us to recreate Oyo State and turn its fortunes around. From time to time, I will welcome useful suggestions and ideas from you and I will always want you to advance superior arguments on why we should or should not take a particular decision. Indeed, we will be drinking from your pool of knowledge, experience and expertise as civil servants who are known for order, process and abidance with rules.
Let me also reiterate the kernel of my inaugural, which is that, this administration will establish an efficient and result-oriented government that will make our State welcoming, safe, secure, business and leisure-friendly to everyone. To achieve this, we shall need the support, cooperation and experience of the civil service, so that collectively, we can improve the quality of life of our people.
In doing these, we will not compromise quality, neither will we sacrifice integrity. Our vision for our state would be implemented by an administration that is open, transparent, responsible, responsive and accountable to the ultimate owners of the patrimony – the people.
I thank the labour community for its support and understanding at moments when runners of the past government attempted to covertly and overtly instigate crisis between them and us, specifically on the issue of the new minimum wage. We have set the balls rolling to immediately commence talks with labour, with the aim of addressing the issue of the new minimum wage when we shall lay the fact bare. This government is not only committed to the protection of the rights and welfare of workers, but such protection is basic to the administration.
In the midst of these eulogies for our civil service, let me also admonish the service on the need to concentrate on their jobs and resist the temptation to dabble into partisan politics. The bane of the civil service globally is its involvement in partisan politics. Let us leave the turf of politics for politicians so that we can restore the service to its hallowed days when a civil servant was a study in patriotism, honour and diligence.
I thank you all for putting this forum together. God bless you all. God bless Oyo State.
I am aware that the strides of today were borne out of your relentless and fervent prayers which you offered in your closets, tabernacles and in your heartfelt communion with the Almighty in the mosques. We must not delude ourselves: The glory that we all bask in today was largely due to the fact that the Almighty decided to answer the prayers that civil servants, the clergy and the generality of our people offered at dawn, in the scorching sun of the afternoon and at dusk, when crickets make their joyful noises to salute the darkness.
It is your prayers and intercessory vigils that made it possible for us to have a peaceful transition from one government to another.
I, however, want to appeal to our religious leaders that it is not yet Uhuru. It is now that we need your prayers, more than ever before, in line with the maxim that whatever God has made perfect requires prayers, in order for it not to lose its splendour; while in another breath, anything that has lost its splendour also requires prayers for it to be made perfect.
Having said these, I want to remind our religious leaders that the journey has just begun. Though God has answered our prayers by proclaiming a stop to the past years of the locusts, now, more than any other time, our intercessory prayers to God and involvement in the paddle of the ship of the state should be redoubled.
We have sworn to restore the sliding affairs of our dear state. As I said in my inaugural, our march to restoration requires a collective resolve to change our attitude to work and ethical standards. Commitment to hardwork, patriotism, respect for due process and diligence, as well as our general values would be needed at this critical point of our march to the restoration of Oyo State. I want to liken our situation as a people to the task of a builder entrusted with rebuilding a house from its ruins. The task will require determination, professionalism, unalloyed commitment and belief in the can-do spirit of man to make a difference in the face of expected odds.
The journey I’m talking about is a journey to make a difference in our dear Oyo state. The civil service is the focal point of that journey of restoration and transformation. Therefore, government will depend largely on the service – which is the hub of activities of any administration and the engine room of progress of any state – to execute and achieve its agenda of restoration and transformation.
As I enumerated in my inaugural, this administration will seek to restore the glory of Oyo State by working on the following priorities:
- Human Capital Development encompassing education, skill acquisition and healthcare delivery
- Infrastructure development
- Rural development and integration
- Revitalization and development of agriculture and agro-allied industry
- Promotion of security from a developmental perspective, through the provision of social inclusion and rule of law and;
- Democracy and good governance
The government can only achieve the above goals with the support and cooperation of the civil service.
One favour that Almighty God has bestowed on us in Oyo State is that we are fortunate to have inherited a very strong, reliable and professional civil service, which was a direct gift from the front-liners and founding fathers of the state. We recognize that no government can make headway if it belittles or looks down on the civil service. Not only will this government consciously refrain from being at the gathering of anyone who has no regard for the civil service, this administration will pursue the restoration of its lost glory.
We are, however, aware that our civil service is bedeviled with challenges. One of the first steps we will take as a government is to restore the sagging confidence that the Oyo civil servant has been forced to contend with in recent years. On the heels of this is a task that this government will undertake to expose our civil servants to appropriate in-service training programmes that will hone their skills and prepare them for efficient service delivery. One clear way of doing this, which we have devised, is to revolutionize the service in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), so as to make them faster, secure and more efficient in their delivery of services. I am by this alerting the civil service on the need to brace itself for the challenges of this restoration.
This administration’s plan to run an all-inclusive government is unshakeable and I therefore implore our workforce to join forces with us to recreate Oyo State and turn its fortunes around. From time to time, I will welcome useful suggestions and ideas from you and I will always want you to advance superior arguments on why we should or should not take a particular decision. Indeed, we will be drinking from your pool of knowledge, experience and expertise as civil servants who are known for order, process and abidance with rules.
Let me also reiterate the kernel of my inaugural, which is that, this administration will establish an efficient and result-oriented government that will make our State welcoming, safe, secure, business and leisure-friendly to everyone. To achieve this, we shall need the support, cooperation and experience of the civil service, so that collectively, we can improve the quality of life of our people.
In doing these, we will not compromise quality, neither will we sacrifice integrity. Our vision for our state would be implemented by an administration that is open, transparent, responsible, responsive and accountable to the ultimate owners of the patrimony – the people.
I thank the labour community for its support and understanding at moments when runners of the past government attempted to covertly and overtly instigate crisis between them and us, specifically on the issue of the new minimum wage. We have set the balls rolling to immediately commence talks with labour, with the aim of addressing the issue of the new minimum wage when we shall lay the fact bare. This government is not only committed to the protection of the rights and welfare of workers, but such protection is basic to the administration.
In the midst of these eulogies for our civil service, let me also admonish the service on the need to concentrate on their jobs and resist the temptation to dabble into partisan politics. The bane of the civil service globally is its involvement in partisan politics. Let us leave the turf of politics for politicians so that we can restore the service to its hallowed days when a civil servant was a study in patriotism, honour and diligence.
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