Gov Okorocha, Civil Service and Pension Conundrum

GOV OKOROCHA, CIVIL SERVICE AND PENSION CONUNDRUM

        

Greetings brethren! I’m immensely glad we all made it to this juncture in spite of the fathomless hurdles that beseeched us the previous days. You might lack words at a particular circumstance, but never you hesitate to exclaim “Thank you Lord for keeping me alive” at every given time irrespective of the circumstance you may find yourself.

      
Frankly the last time I checked, most of the plights being faced by the greater percentage of the teeming Nigerians were attributable to ignorance. Yes; most Nigerians are currently ignorant owing to various factors ranging from illiteracy to lack of reading habit, apathy as regards listening to news or quest for knowledge, lack of exposure, inferiority complex, inability to ask question(s) when necessary/needed as well as the ongoing “I Too Know (ITK)” syndrome salvaging the citizenry, just to mention but a few.

      

You may tape my words if you wish or you might as well document the written ones as it pleases your majesty, but I want you to note that my prime interest in my writing/activism career is to appraise facts at all times and that is why the title of this very column reads “Fancy Facts”; ‘Fancy’ simply means special, unusual, or elaborate.

      
Lest I forget; today’s theme is strictly on the Imo civil service and the ongoing pension conundrum in the said state. Thus pardon me for the initial digression, though it was consequential and rational. It is pertinent to acknowledge that issues relating to problems faced by civil servants and pensioners are not only peculiar to Imo State; rather, Nigeria at large. But that of Imo angered my pen and the reason is obvious; of course whatever that affects the state affects me directly like I rightly stated in the last edition, because that is where I’m coming from – Imo is my heritage.

     
Please I wish to begin with history regarding the theme before us. If you could recall vividly, then you wouldn’t hesitate to agree with me that the moment Gov Rochas Okorocha stepped into the Douglas House in 2011, the civil servants and the pensioners were his priority; my dad who is an Imo pensioner can testify to this fact; though right now the old man is not happy.

     
Therein, the governor assured Imo workers that they would be paid as and when due provided he remained the governor of the great state, and he fulfilled his promise to everybody’s greatest surprise including myself. He didn’t stop at that; he thought it wise to revisit the cases of all the pensioners who had not received their pensions many years prior to his assumption to duty as the governor of the state. In regard to this, he cleared all the pension arrears, which my dad benefitted from. We should not also forget in a hurry that he was the first governor to implement the newest minimum wage.

      
To be frank with you; this was one singular fact, beside the existing free education policy, that attracted me to Rochas Okorocha as an individual. I instantly developed an unalloyed passion for his person because I was of the view that the Imo workers cum pensioners were really faced with untold hardship prior to his emergence as the state’s governor.

      
One of the retired headmasters in Imo State who I was opportune to have a one-on-one talk with told me wholeheartedly that he preferred addressing Gov Okorocha as “An Administrator” rather than “A Governor”. When asked why; he candidly said that such statement was informed by the fact that the said leader acts like an astute administrator going by the way he had handled all the pension matters that awaited him.

      
Similarly, that of my mum – Mrs Vero Nwaozor (Nee Egbuna) is what baffled my person most; someone who meritoriously retired from the civil service as a Health Personnel since March 2014 but yet to receive her pension arrears coupled with gratuity never ceases to eulogize Gov Okorocha even till date. The kind of passion my beloved mum has for the governor is so extreme that at a point I thought she had been charmed by the man in question, not until she told me the sole reason for her fanaticism. She disclosed to me that the treatment she received in civil service between 2011 and 2014 before she retired was so overwhelming that it could not be compared with the treatment she got during the several years that preceded the aforesaid period; she added that unless I was a civil servant, I wouldn’t know how a worker feels if he/she receives his/her salary as and when due.

      
Right now the heat is on; every worker/pensioner, excluding my mum who remains optimistic, is seemingly disappointed with the government. In view of this scenario, I wish to clear the air based on my understanding. In line with the recent interaction I had with a staunch affiliate to the Douglas House, it seems the governor is into what could be best described as “Civil Service cum Pension Matters Reform.” If you have been observant, you would have noticed that a lot of anomalies had been taking place in the Imo likewise other states’ civil service and pension matters.

      
The most worrisome part of the said anomaly is the issue of “Ghost workers/pensioners” syndrome. It is no longer news that over the years, the various workers’ payrolls have been filled with names of non-existent workers. Even most of them who were meant to retire years ago are still receiving salaries. Pathetically, most workers no longer receive their Leave allowance; something that’s supposed to be statutory has been made to become a privilege. Some persons would be comfortably sitting on other persons’ monies without minding the law of karma. What impunity!

      
In the same vein, that of the pensioners cannot be overemphasized; the names of most of the pensioners are still on the workers’ payrolls, and the excesses are invariably going into the purses of those at the head. That is why, in any reform process, it is often the heads that kick against it.

      
It is imperative for our people to be duly informed so that they wouldn’t misinterpret/misunderstand the ongoing process, which I personally think will go a long way to restructure the state’s civil service as well as pension matters in its entirety. This would take us back to the second paragraph of this piece where I stated that several problems most Nigerians are presently facing are as a result of ignorance. Since most of them don’t listen to news neither do they bring time to read newspapers or magazines, we ought to employ a device through which they would be thoroughly sensitized.

      
However, the issue of concession is what I would urge the government to reconsider critically especially when it has to do with the health sector, which deals directly with the people’s lives. If we must concession the management of any health parastatal; that is, if the proposed action has become uncompromising, we’re expected to be holistically careful as well as mindful of the body we’re leasing them to. A very sensitive and fragile sector like health requires nothing but adequate pampering. Hence, we must look before we leap.

     
Most importantly, the government should endeavor to carry the affected workers who are already preoccupied with premonitory anxieties along, so that there would be harmony at the long run. A word, they say, is enough for the wise.

     
Now that the government has assured the pensioners that they would be paid in no distant time, I enjoin them to continue praying for the government rather than unleashing curses on their leaders. The government must also hasten up in its ongoing reform with a view to ensuring that the pensioners experience moment of psychological rest again.

     
All the same; I sincerely wish everyone success, but we must try by all means to distance ourselves from deceit. A popular Igbo adage says “Atowa uto, ewepu awuwo”; literally it means, if a relationship is going smoothly, the parties involved ought to endeavour not to invite any element of deceit. Think about it!

COMR FRED DOC NWAOZOR

(The Media Ambassador)

Executive Director, Centre for Counselling, Research

& Career Development - Owerri

_____________________________________

frednwaozor@gmail.com

+2348028608056 

http://frednwaozor.blogspot.com

Twitter: @fdnnwaozor          

                 

    

        

While We Await Okorocha's Cabinet

WHILE WE AWAIT OKOROCHA’S CABINET

       

It would be preposterous and ridiculous to commence this piece without letting people realize where I’m actually coming from. I may have been known as an analyst or activist as it pleases the people but the gospel truth remains that I’m putting up this critique not based on the aforementioned facts but owing to the fact that I’m a bona-fide Imolite; suffice it to say that, whatever that affects Imo State affects my person directly as well. Thus I sincerely present this piece as an Imolite.

      

The last time I checked, if I’m not mistaken, the entire Imo populace was preoccupied with the urge of meeting the set of persons that would make up Gov Okorocha’s cabinet to include the commissioners as well as special advisers just as the tradition demands. In the same vein, the last moment I also checked, none of the said group of people was aware of the reason for the delay. In view of this, I wish to start with a clarification note; let me hurriedly use this avenue to clear the air.

       

Ordinarily, the ethics of the game is that immediately after an election has taken place, those who emerged victorious in the various states as the governors would appoint some gentle men and ladies to assist them in running the affairs of their respective states. The appointees are often referred to as members of the governor’s cabinet. This step is invariably necessary because a tree cannot make a forest.

    

It is apparent that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is currently occupying the number one political seat situated in Aso Rock villa. It is also noteworthy that, same political party happens to be in charge of the Douglas House found in the Eastern Heartland. These two obvious facts indicate that Gov Rochas Okorocha was not meant to form his overall cabinet until President Buhari had concluded his; such approach is consequential and rational because the governor wouldn’t know the Imolites that would make it to the Mr President’s incoming cabinet.

        

If you take a close observation, you would notice that virtually all the progressive governors are yet to constitute their cabinets; please ‘progressive governors’ literally means governors of the APC. Needless to say that it is not only Gov Okorocha that is putting on such shoes. Of course it was barely few days ago that the Lagos state governor Mr Akinwunmi Ambode brought out his own list, simply because the man who hails from the state Mr Babatunde Fashola, SAN that made it to the ministerial list had been cleared by the Red Chamber of the National Assembly.

        

Frankly, it is politically wise for any progressive governor to wait till the man in charge of the Aso Rock had constituted his cabinet because he wouldn’t know if any of the persons he would like to include in his awaited cabinet would be adopted by President Mohammadu Buhari; that is politics for you. But the problem is that such practice is often at the detriment of the electorate due to the fact that it would be delaying the good governance they all pray for, or that awaits them.

         

Now that the long awaited ministerial list is out and almost all the names in it had received favour from the Senate, though that of Imo State is still pending, Imolites in their entirety including my humble self - Fred Doc Nwaozor cannot wait to see the amiable governor tendering his own list, which is long overdue according to the people, to the Imo House of Assembly for onward scrutiny and confirmation.

        

But while we await the governor’s cabinet, there are some rudimentary facts I would like to present to the leader in question via this medium. Undoubtedly, it is my individual social responsibility to disclose the needed facts towards ensuring that there wouldn’t be any iota of derailment while the process lasts.

       

First; I wouldn’t like what happened at the apex level regarding exclusion of the youth to repeat itself in my home state. It is no longer news that the said ministerial list never favoured any youth; it is so appalling that among the whole thirty-seven (37) names released by Mr President lack a name belonging to a youth. It is humiliating and unfair that the people who are ubiquitously referred to as ‘the leaders of tomorrow’ are often relegated at the background; it’s indeed a paradox. Sometimes I see it as a thing of mockery whenever the youth are classified as the leaders of tomorrow that cease to come considering the contemporary Nigerian society.  

        

Similarly, I want the people’s governor to detest the language of ‘recycling’ that is usually practised on the Nigerian socio-political platform, which is drastically becoming a norm, with passion. Yes, he ought to passionately detest the anomaly because it is severely telling on our polity.

       Unequivocally, it sounds absurd and disgusting to my hearing each time it comes to my notice that the same set of names that were being heard far back thirty years ago are still roaming about in the Nigerian political setting. I’m not saying that the names ought to be scrapped; but for crying out loud, the owners of the names are supposed to act as elder statesmen towards actualizing good governance rather than posing as the main actors. They have acted in the past and this is the time for their young ones to follow suit, or start from where they stopped.

      
Most importantly, I want Gov Okorocha to note that including technocrats in his awaited cabinet is meant to be seen as an uncompromising gesture if truly he is keen to actualize the anticipated outcome of his industrialization and massive job creation mantra. Let me quickly define a technocrat according to the BBC English Dictionary, before we contradict it at the long run. A technocrat is ‘a scientist, engineer, or other expert who is one of a group of similar people who have political power as well as technical knowledge.’ Please, we need nothing but cognoscenti.

       So as we await the quintessential governor’s cabinet, I wish to state candidly at this juncture that, every good thing that has happened in our lives happened because something changed. Hence, we ought to endeavour to change some norms that seem outdated. Think about it!

 

FDN NWAOZOR

(The Media Ambassador)

Executive Director, Centre for Counselling, Research

& Career Development - Owerri

_____________________________________

frednwaozor@gmail.com

+2348028608056 

http://frednwaozor.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/fred4nwaozor

Twitter: @fdnnwaozor          

           

Njiko Carnival In Igboland

THE FORTHCOMING NJIKO CARNIVAL IN IGBOLAND

Heritage is simply defined as the inheritance such as buildings, monuments, or any property of an individual or a society. Whilst, cultural heritage are the inherited qualities, traditions, ideas, or style of living of an individual or a given society, which have continued over many years, especially when they are considered to be of historical importance.

        

Undoubtedly, cultures to include dancing, masquerading, dressing, sewing, hunting, fishing, singing, wrestling, moulding of sculptures, painting, just to mention but a few, are essential developmental tools in any society or nation. Culture is strongly connected with identity; and identity expressed through culture is a necessity for all human developments. It creates the fundamental building blocks in our respective personalities and in the ties that link us to various communities and the nation we find ourselves.

         

To say the least; culture plays a unique and crucial role in a development policy especially issues relating to human rights. A free and staunch cultural heritage has the tendency of promoting other rights and values including freedom of expression, diversity and debate about needs in a society. Similarly, culture is a key player in the link between freedom of expression and democratization.

          

Inter alia, culture can also encourage the economic growth of either a nation or an individual, as the case may be. Creative areas namely music, paintings, drawings and sewing can equally serve as revenue sources. In fact, the encounter between culture, creativity, technology and economy embodies a great potential in creating work places and increasing exports, and also contributes to social inclusion.

       

Culture can as well assist in checking socio-political crises or differences among members of a particular nation. It ensures unity during crisis, and influences identity, debate and dialogue; thus, it is needed for nation building, and for peace and reconciliation. Needless to say; it inspires positive and tangible change, which we all anticipate. Survey indicates that cultural cooperation is one of the most equality-oriented forms of co-operations in existence.

Surely, the entertainment industry cannot be left out while discussing the impact of cultural heritage on nation building. In the same vein, the tourism of any nation cannot be discussed without mentioning its cultural diversity. Analysts are of the view that the cultural heritage of any society contributes over sixty-five percent (65%) of its tourist sector, which remains one of the paramount Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) sources of any developed society.  

        

Indeed, tourism is one of the backbones or engine rooms of any developed nation in the world, and such cannot be possible without the impact of cultural diversity of the nation in question. This implies that it is high time the Igbo nation, which is endowed with hundreds of different cultural resources, started thinking of how to harness the said endowments.

        

Unequivocally, considering the aforementioned profound benefits attached to culture to include undiluted unity, societal development and absolute peace, there is no gain reiterating the fact that the Igbo nation as a whole can only restore her lost glory and dignity by embracing her unquantifiable cultural heritage. It was against this background that one of the illustrious sons of Igboland, Mr Charles Oputa (alias CharlyBoy) otherwise known as ‘Area Fada’ as well as other distinguished fellows of like minds of Igbo extraction thought it wise to come up with ‘Njiko Carnival’ with a view to reuniting the entire teeming members of the inestimable Igbo nation, which mainly comprises Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Abia and Ebonyi States.

         

‘Njiko Carnival’, which would be an annual event, is proposed to be the first ever Igbo cultural carnival. The idea was borne out of a strong desire to showcase the very rich cultural heritage of the South Eastern Region of Nigeria, which is being neglected and eroded for decades now. The name ‘NJIKO’ meaning oneness/unity was coined as a clarion call to encourage the Igbos to unite through the medium of Arts and Culture. Suffice it to say; any group that represents the interest of the Igbo nation in its entirety is expected to queue in towards ensuring that the proposed event becomes a tremendous success.

         

A carnival with an expected crowd of over one hundred thousand (100,000) spectators alongside participants from all nooks and crannies of the South Eastern States and beyond is one of a series of events aimed at engaging our young ones especially the youth in resourceful and result-oriented activities as long as it lasts. The venue for the forthcoming maiden edition of the Njiko Carnival with the theme ‘The Rising Carnival’, which is scheduled to take place on the 28^th to 30^th December 2015, is the beautiful environment around the Blue Lake situated at the Oguta Ancient Kingdom in Imo State – the Eastern Heartland. The said Blue Lake popularly referred to as ‘Oguta Lake’, which is reckoned to be the second largest of its kind in Nigeria, was chosen owing to its potential as a perfect tourist location.

         

The highlights of this year’s Njiko Carnival include cultural display from member/neighbouring states of the region, boat regatta, float parades, traditional wrestling, musical concerts from veteran Igbo/Nigerian artistes, cultural dances, coupled with the faces of various famous Nollywood actors, comedians and sports personalities that would grace the occasion, amongst other cultural displays too numerous to mention.

         

Presently, the Njiko Carnival has won the support of many prominent men of Igbo origin such as the likes of Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe (the Obi of Onitsha), Sen. Ben Obi, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife and Elder Kalu, among others. However, the fundamental objectives of the proposed cause/crusade, which include to foster peace and unalloyed unity among the Igbos, to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the South eastern region of Nigeria, as well as to use pop culture to reach the youth, cannot be holistically actualized without the support of all and sundry across the Igboland or anyone who thinks good of the Igbo nation.

         

According to the National Coordinator of the Njiko Carnival as well as the Chief Convener of the awaited 2015 episode, Mr Charles Oputa – an exemplary artiste and a renowned producer in the entertainment industry, the Carnival is targeted to attract a mass movement of people of Igbo origin from all walks of life within the country and in the Diaspora, to unite and celebrate the dense cultural heritage of the great Igbo nation.

          

The organizers of the forthcoming epoch-making ceremony (Njiko Carnival 2015) are using this medium to appeal to all the Igbos to endeavour to spread the good news via their respective individual or collective capacities. It is worth noting that the Igboland belongs to we all of Igbo extraction; thus, it is our civic responsibility to revive its lost glory. And we can’t actualize this by sitting on the fence. So, let your voice be heard. Think about it!

COMR FRED DOC NWAOZOR

(The Media Ambassador)

Executive Director, Centre for Counselling, Research

& Career Development - Owerri

_____________________________________

frednwaozor@gmail.com

+2348028608056 

Twitter: @fdnnwaozor