Thirty civil servants in Ekiti State are already waiting for the verdict of a disciplinary committee to be set up by the State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, to look into reasons why they came late to their offices on Monday.
Fayose, who paid an unscheduled visit to the state Secretariat at exactly 8:00am on Monday, met that many of the workers had not resumed for work.
Some who were lucky to have seen the governor early, scampered around to avoid being apprehended.
The other 30 were not so lucky. The committee to be set up is to recommend appropriate sanctions for the workers.
The governor warned civil servants in the state to shun every act of lateness and truancy adding that the unscheduled visits would continue so that erring workers could be shown the way out of the service.
He therefore warned that he could visit any ministry, department or agency at anytime.
Head of Service in the State, Dr. Olugbenga Faseluka, confirmed that he had written several memos and warned the workers to no avail.
Meanwhile Governor Fayose has described President Mohammadu Buhari as operating as a President of the Northern Nigeria only, further saying steps taken by the President since 29th May 2015 are tainted in ethnic and tribal colouration, which is inimical to the unity of Nigeria.
The governor, who described Buhari’s actions as ‘Nothernisation of Nigeria’, said appointments made by the President so far negated the principle of Federal Character making it appear that the unity in diversity of Nigeria is being taken for granted by the President.
According to a statement issued on Monday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said it was wrong for President Buhari to have made 31 major appointments and only seven would come from the South while 24 were from the North.
He asked: “under Buhari, are people from Southern Nigeria only meant to be hounded and harassed by anti-corruption agencies and the Department of State Security (DSS) while those from the North are meant to enjoy Federal Government juicy appointments?”
“Apart from lopsided appointments being made by the President, I am worried that construction of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has been slowed down while work has stopped on Lokoja-Abuja roads, which are the major roads linking the Southern part of Nigeria with the North.
“Also, we have been told by the Federal Government that the Second Niger Bridge project has been suspended and one is now beginning to remember how Buhari cancelled the Lagos Metroline Project in 1985 at a loss of over $78 million (then) to the Lagos tax payers.”
Fayose, who maintained that Nigeria can only move forward if there was equity and fairness, said those who made the country’s constitution and enshrined the principle of Federal Character were mindful of the ethnic diversity of the country.
He added that President Buhari was running Nigeria as if he was a Northern President saying this was not in the interest of the country.
“They said the President made the appointments on merit and I wish to ask whether there are no competent people in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Southern part of Nigeria, especially South-East where no one has been appointed.
“Are they saying Igbo leader like Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who graduated with a first class honours degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Lagos, is not competent to be appointed as Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF)?
“To my mind, these lopsided appointments skewed in favour of the North is a reminder of President Buhari’s tenure as Military Head of State and I hope the President is not seeing Nigeria of today as that of 1984 because doing so will mean that he has turned himself to a northern president, thereby justifying his notion that those who gave him 97 percent votes must get more benefits than those who gave him five percent votes,” Fayose said.
