By Osuini Francis
Akwa Ibom Civil Servants who were once beneficiaries of Akpabiomba; an extra salary in the last month of the year, promotion arrears, leave grants and other juicy perks are today on the throes of uncertainty and resultant hardship under Governor Udom Emmanuel. The reason for the spiteful treatment they are getting from the governor is unknown to them. But they believe that if a governor they overwhelmingly voted for in 2015 and who is seeking a second term in office could unleash such hardship on civil servants in his first term, then it behooves them to be wise as they return to the polls on March 2, 2019.
"In the era of Akpabio, civil servants fared well", said a civil servant who craved for anonymity. "It was our promotion arrears and other perks that we often used to buy land and build our houses each time such entitlement came", he continued. "Now no civil servant can boast of purchasing a parcel of land, not to talk of building a house during the Udom administration", he lamented. He called on civil servants to unite and vote Udom out of office as a way of protesting his insensitive leadership.
At the Idongesi Nkanga State Secretariat and Secretariat Annex at Udo Udoma, the chorus of hardship continues to live on the lips of civil servants who lament over sundry deprivations by the State Government. "This governor is very mean. I understand he says that civil servants are not productive and that if he had his way, he would have privatized the civil service. I do not know whether he wants us to go and break stones before he would reckon that we are productive", another civil servant from Secretariat Annex said. He advised civil servants to be ready to pay Udom back in the same coin. The senior civil servant wondered how Governor Emmanuel could treat a critical segment of the society like civil servants with streams of dependants with such gross neglect and expect to have their votes in his second term bid. He warned his colleagues to reject him at the polls positing that they must align with the maxim, "once beaten, twice shy".
If the two persons spoken to above were mild in their submission, a director at the main Secretariat that Yours truly encountered was brutal and unsparing in his remarks. "Akwa Ibom collect 5 times of what Edo collects as federal allocation, 3 times of what Cross River State collects, yet these two States have paid promotion arrears, leave grants and other sundry perks to their civil servants", he stated. According to him, in Akwa Ibom State, the Government is chasing shadows and embarking on ventures that are already dead on delivery. An example, according to him, is the State Government's procurement of about 3 aircraft at the cost of about N100 billion. He stated that Akwa Ibom indigenes who are not aware of any such budget proposal to the State House of Assembly and subsequent appropriation by the body are still at a loss as to whether the Airline would run as a social service or a profit oriented venture pointing out that attaining success in the economy of today is quite slim.
"The Udom Administration is known to be involved in many other wasteful ventures instead of caring for the welfare of civil servants", the director further posited. He made reference to the purchase of 31 No. new prado jeeps for the 31 local government Chairmen in the State describing it as wasted funds and a misapplication in the face of the hardship civil servants are witnessing. The director also referred to the rumoured N5 billion belonging to the State Government which is alleged to have been wasted by Governor Emmanuel during the Ekiti Governorship election which he was the Chairman.
Governor Emmanuel is known to always sing the accustomed song of "no money", latching often on what he refers to as "dwindling receipts" from the Federal Account. Sometimes he would declare zero allocation to the people and seeking to appear welfarist and sanctimonious would announce that he has had to use his DEEDS to secure loan to pay salaries. What a wonderful governor! But in the face of this suspicious piety, side by side with profligate spending, the misery of civil servants has continued without let. According to many of them, at no time have civil servant been subjected to this level of untold hardship by any administration since the creation of the State. For instance, retired workers have not been paid gratuities and other retirement benefits since 2015, 2016 and 2017. Sadly, statistics gleaned shows that about 70% of them have died as the non-payment of these entitlements have forced them into acute poverty with no access to food and drugs.
Other strangulating conditions include the fact that in the past 3 years, no newly appointed permanent secretary has been given an official car. Money for office furniture has under this administration exited the menu of official essentials. In 2018, 80% of government ministries had zero budgetary releases even when funds were duly appropriated. Training and retraining of civil services which ab initio was a sustained curriculum have also vanished or comes too occasionally to be meaningful or noticed.
Governor Emmanuel seems not to have confidence in civil servants and he does not pretend to wish to work with them. Rather, he has brought in private consultants from Lagos to mange critical areas of government including the State treasury thus exposing the State to mindless fleecing by his Lagos cronies. Furthermore, he has introduced strange parameters into the business of government thus embarking on selective funding of ministries and agencies while others manned by those that do not belong to his cabal are placed permanently on zero vote or imprest. This practice has also been extended to other appurtenances of office like vehicle, office space and furniture.
Governor Emmanuel's disposition to civil servants is anything but dignifying. A survey of the State Secretariat and even the Annex tells the tale. The offices are today laden with dilapidated furniture. By noon of everyday, the Secretariat is often in a lull of activities with a reduction in productivity. The reason is simple. Most ministries either do not have generators to power and run activities in their ministries, while the ones that have cannot afford diesel because imprest had long disappeared as routine receipts making the running of generator a prohibitive venture.
Well, Governor Emmanuel may have been a whiz kid in the bank but he is widely seen as a monumental failure in the management and allocation of resources of the State. It is why things have gone topsy turvy with all the segments of the society complaining and wishing he never crossed their path.
Osuini writes from Oron
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