By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
The governor-elect of Cross River State, Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu, has been charged by the state council of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, to sustain some of the legacy projects of the outgoing administration of Governor Ben Ayade, especially projects that would impact positively on the lives of the citizenry.
In an interactive session with journalists in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, the state chairman of the NLC, Comrade Gregory Olayi, yesterday led the advocacy, while congratulating the governor-elect, Senator Prince Otu, on his victory in the just concluded polls.
Olayi charged Otu to include, as one of top priority projects the rehabilitation of the state library complex, so as to revive the reading culture, which has vanished among the youths due to the poor state of the library facility.
He said that some projects initiated by the administiion of Governor Ayade, which are people-oriented and impact positively on the lives of the people should be given priority attention, so that the legacies of the Ayade’s administration would not be forgotten easily.
Olayi, who is also the chairman of the state branch of the Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT, before his recent election as state chairman of the NLC, stated that with the library complex upgrade, youths with passion for education can always utilize the library to improve their reading culture.
He stressed that Cross River State requires at least 20,000 workers to energize it’s workforce if the workforce is to remain efficient and productive in delivering quality service to the people.
Olayi averred that since the creation of Akwa Ibom State till now, a period of about 36 years, a lot of civil servants are retiring based on years of service, a development which has been depleting the state workforce since 2022.
The former chairman of Cross River State NUT, and now chairman of the state NLC stated that it has become expedient that more hands are injected into the civil service to make the workforce productive and efficient.
He said, “I want to make it clear that the retirement age approval for teachers is not Governor Ayade’s initiative, but an act of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the governor only approved (domiciled) it in the state.
“We are urging the government to implement the promotion of those who have not been promoted since eight years ago.
“We would also urged the government to employ more teachers, there are schools with just three teachers, especially primary schools, many of them need atleast 30 teachers, a lot of our workers are retiring, especially teachers.
“More than 90 percent started leaving since 2022, and it will be more this 2023, so we need at least 10,000 teachers for now or even more.
“The civil service as a whole needs up to 20,000 employees to be more efficient and productive, because if you calculate from when Akwa Ibom was created from Cross River in 1987, it’s 36 years, a lot of people moved then to Akwa Ibom, and now more than 80 per cent of the workforce have worked up to 35 years.
“The engine room of any administration, which is the workforce, needs more hand, young people that can also learn from the old people with years of experience, who are now leaving the service and this is one of the ways that the people can benefit from the dividend of democracy.
“I want to urge the governor-elect to sustain the good policies of the previous adminstration and discard the ones not favourable to the people.”
