Mbah meets Enugu civil servants, pledges improved welfare

Gov. Peter Mbah of Enugu State on Monday met with civil servants in the state and pledged to improve their welfare to cope with the effects of the fuel subsidy removal.

Addressing workers at the state secretariat, the governor solicited their support and cooperation to transform and move the state forward.

Mbah, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, said that his administration would not achieve its campaign promises without commitment, cooperation and unwavering support from the civil servants.

“I acknowledged all that was said here and it is only somebody who is not living in Nigeria will ignore or claim to be ignorant about the situation of workers.

“I did not appear from the mar or moon as I have family members that are also public servants; so I know how hard it is for them to meet their day to day obligations and I am mindful of that.

“I believe that labour requires consummate rewards. Government must consider the welfare and quality of services the people make while the people will be committed in improving quality of public service delivery”.

The governor added that moving the state Gross Domestic Product from N4.4 billion to N30 billion was achievable, even more, with the commitment of the workforce which would definitely boost salaries.

Mbah explained that the government was working hard to restore power supply at the Secretariat to enhance worker’s productivity and the proposed e-Goverance.

He said that his administration was doing everything possible to address revenue generation leakages.

“This is why we are deploying technology to make it difficult to steal public funds. So have patient with us and pray that we succeed and  know that what we need in Enugu is irreversible changes,” he said.

Earlier, the state Head of Civil Service, Mr Ken Chukwuegbo, said the forum was a worker friendly forum with the governor adding that no worker would be sanctioned or bullied.

“This is one on one talk with his Excellency as a family on his campaign promises, programmes and policies of his administration, so feel free,” he said.

He added that the civil servants in Enugu State would be transiting from manual way of doing things to E-Govervance for higher productivity.

The Labour Leaders, who spoke earlier during the meeting, urged Gov. Mbah to improve workers welfare to alleviate their plight emanating from fuel subsidy removal, poor salaries, high cost of transportation and among others.

Comrade Ben Asogwa, the state Trade Union Congress (TUC) Chairman,  while commending Gov. Mbah for his good works in the state, said they were ready to the digitalization of the civil service system in Enugu.

He advocated for subsidy allowances and provision of staff buses for workers in the state as well as increasing their salaries to meet up the recent economic realities.

Similarly, the Chairman Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Enugu Chapter, Comrade Fabian Asogwa, noted that the biggest challenge of workers was not insecurity but “food, welfare and salaries insecurity”.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this is the first time workers reported to work on the Monday sit at home declared by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in 2021.

Some of the workers who spoke to NAN expressed delight that the situation had changed and promised to put in their best to improve the state economy.