Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu, yesterday, 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, Chidiebere Onyia, said 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 that 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 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,” he said.
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 said government was working hard to restore power supply at the secretariat to enhance worker’s productivity and the proposed e-Governance.
He said 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 we succeed and know that what we need in Enugu is irreversible changes,” he said.
Earlier, the state Head of Civil Service, Ken Chukwuegbo, said the forum was a worker friendly forum with the governor, adding that no worker would be sanctioned or bullied.
“He added that the civil servants in Enugu State would be transiting from manual way of doing things to E-Governance for higher productivity.
The labour leaders, who spoke earlier during the meeting, urged Governor Mbah to improve workers welfare to alleviate their plight emanating from fuel subsidy removal, poor salaries and high cost of transportation.
Ben Asogwa, the state Trade Union Congress chairman, while commending Governor Mbah for his good works, said they were ready for the digitalisation of the civil service system in Enugu.
He advocated for subsidy allowances and provision of staff buses for workers as well as increasing their salaries to meet up the recent economic realities.
Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress, Enugu chapter, Fabian Asogwa, said the biggest challenge of workers was not insecurity but “food, welfare and salaries insecurity.”