
By Marvellous-Friday Udo
There is a characteristically humanistic savvy with which Governor Umo Eno approaches matters of concern to public servants in Akwa Ibom State and this laudable disposition is steadily engraving the Governor’s name on the marble of public service history of the state as a workers-friendly Governor.
Last Sunday, at a Thanksgiving Service, at Ikot Ekpene Udo, a community in Akwa Ibom State, the Governor clarified that he would commence payment of the new minimum wage of N80,000 to public servants during payment of their January salaries, now that staff verification exercise has been carried out in the public service of the state
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Giving the assurance at the gathering of journalists from both private and government media agencies, Eno further demonstrated his workers-friendly disposition by donating a sport utility vehicle, SUV, to the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Comrade Amos Etuk, and made a promise of 10 salon cars to the State Working Committee members, who he commended for their hard work in driving his administration’s ARISE Agenda in particular and supporting the development of Akwa Ibom State in general.
Eno is not a Governor that does things by the prompting of people. He said so while announcing his decision to pay the new minimum wage in January, 2025.
“I am truly a workers-friendly Governor. I don’t do things because people have said something. Before any other Governor, I had started paying, in bulk sum, arrears of gratuities of retired public servants and I am set to pay another bulk sum, ” the Governor stated while making remarks at the journalists’ event.
True to his assertion, Eno’s approach to issues of workers’ welfare has been bold, deliberate and decisive. During his campaigns to take the office of the Governor of the state, he promised to pay arrears of gratuities of public service workers which he realized had become a sore issue and he did that broadly and massively across the tiers of governments in the state when he ascended the seat of Governor of the state.
Apart from paying arrears of entitlements to state civil service workers, Eno ensured that workers in the unified local government system benefitted from his gesture of worker-centric governance.
In a span of 18 months, Eno has convincingly proved himself a workers-friendly Governor, responding to the needs of workers with a heart of compassion and touching their welfare with the hand of a caring father.
He has given attention to the welfare of serving and retired workers with equal equanimity by prompt payment of salaries, pensions and arrears of gratuities.
He has paid benefits and entitlements to the state workers and in December added an extra pay popularly called 13th month salary or Enomber. This is in addition to cash awards of N20,000 to all civil servants and three tranches of N10,000 each month paid to cushion the effect of high cost of transportation due to withdrawal of oil subsidy.
He has also built houses for civil servants which they won and owned through a raffle draw.
Eno is a star case in the portrait of a promise-keeper Governor whose experience as an erstwhile major employer of labour, handy with skills and passion of reward for service, is easily translated to a satisfying Governor-workers relationship. This harmonious relationship, coupled with the administration’s efficient capacity building programmes and strategic training combine to accelerate the success of the administration’s ARISE Agenda which is anchored on agriculture, rural development and entrepreneurship.
*_Udo is an Uyo-based journalist_*
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