BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG
ON November 17, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, marked his third year anniversary as governor of Edo state. In over 60 pages speech, Comrade Oshiomhole rendered his administration’s stewardship in last 36 months and disclosed that within the last three years, his government created over 25,000 jobs.

The governor highlighted verifiable chains of achievements in all sectors and drew ovation from even his worst critics.

In the area of workers’ welfare, since the inception of Oshiomhole’s administration in Edo State, he has put everything in place to ensure the overall well being of the civil servants as well as creating job opportunities for the army of the unemployed youths in the state.

Oshiomhole

To begin with, 10 years embargo on promotions and recruitments into the civil service was lifted by the Comrade Governor as soon as he was sworn in.

Promotion across board is being implemented since 2009 as approval was given for the implantation of the promotion exercise for 2010 for officers due for promotion. A total of 685 civil servants and public officers made up of 213 junior staff and 379 senior staff and 93 management staff was affected.

On youth employment, the government under the Youth Employment Scheme, YES, programme, employed 3540 graduates and non-graduate, 309 vigilante groups, 567 – Information and Communication Technology (ICT), 274- Board of Internal Revenue bring the total to 4690.

Similarly, the government through the Civil Service Commission recruited a total number of 257 officers across all cadres in addition to the 92 ICT trained personnel that have been absorbed into the system.

Besides, Edo state was the first state in the federation to pay the national minimum wage of N18,000.

Also, the state government through the State Universal Basic Education Board recruited in 2010, over 3000 teachers to beef up its teaching strength in primary and Junior Secondary Schools.

In the area of capacity building, the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has embarked on long training and short term retraining of all categories of civil servant s through seiners and workshops while the working environment has been enhanced with the provisions of working tools such as computers among others.

In his own words, Governor Oshiomhole said the philosophy of his government is that employment is the drug for poverty, Jobs fight crime better than bullets and that Edo has huge public works requirements.

According to him, in the first instance, his government created about 9,000 jobs in the first year in the Edo State Government, EDSG Public Service; “We lifted a 10-year embargo imposed on employment by PDP and have carried out recruitment into the Public Service.  Over 2000 fresh graduates have been employed. Our various contractors have employed over 15,000. Everything added, we have created over 25,000 new jobs.

Workers and pensioners welfare

We pay attention to Workers’ welfare. We were the first to implement the new Minimum Wage and the consequential salary increase across the board, with arrears; Restored the Sanctity of the Payday for workers and pensioners; Cleared the backlog of gratuities and pension dating back to the Year 2000; Granted wage increase across other sectors – First to implement agreement with ASUU; Judiciary sector, Health sector, Medical sector and Higher institutions.”

Comrade Oshiomhole who believes that rewards for hard work is more works, has promised to create more jobs and jobs to ensure that youths in the state are taken away from crimes and put into the productive sector of the economy.

Reacting to the report of the huge jobs created by Governor Oshiomhole, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria; MWUN, National Union of Food Beverage and Tobacco Employees, NUBFTE, National of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, Labour Writers Association of Nigeria, LAWAN, Vanguard for Better Edo, VBE, Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, Iron and Steel Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, ISSSAN among others, said Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led government in Edo State was a pride to labour movement.

President-General of MWUN, Comrade Anthony Emmanuel Nted, told  Labour Vanguard that the union was not the said  not surprised by the  emphasis Comrade Oshiomole placed on welfare of workers, pensioners and employment generation.

According to him, Oshiomhole had become a shining light a become of hope that Nigeria could get it right with the right leadership and called on the other governors and the federal government to borrow a leaf from the former President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC.

He said, “We in the Maritime sector will want to use this medium to congratulate Comrade Governor on his third anniversary as governor of Edo state where he has been making a difference in all sectors and touching the lives of residents and people of Edo State.

We want to commend Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for his job revolution among others in the Edo State. Over 25000 jobs created within the space of three years is something every patriotic Edolites should be proud of knowing the relationship between idle hands and crimes.

If he can do so much with very lean resources, it can be deduced that the problem of the nation is not about availability of resources, but misapplication and mismanagement. We want to call on well meaning people of Edo state as well as residents in the state to full support his administration and ensure that they massively vote for him in 2012 for the state to continue with the path of progress and development.”