By Sarafa Ibrahim
When I opened my WhatsApp this morning (Friday), I saw an unusual message conveyed by just five words: “Adeleke has done it again”. The message came from an unsaved number and out of curiosity, I probed to get the import of the message by asking the sender what has Governor Adeleke done again.
And the follow–up exchanges are as pleasing as intriguing. The message was from one of the thousands of active workers in Osun state who is seemingly impressed with the sustained commitment of Governor Adeleke to their welfare, which was topped with the recent approval by Governor Adeleke for the promotion of civil servants in the state.
In between our engagement, I paused a bit and tried to understand the significance of the Governor’s latest gesture to workers in the state. I was deep in this thought when the bitter experience of career stagnation shared with me by a brother who is a civil servant a few years ago crossed my mind. This brother, although more tilted towards the All Progressives Congress (APC), bitterly lamented the cruel fate experienced under the party, which kept civil servants stagnated for several years as a result of no promotion.
The past was tortuous and horrible, and this clearly explains the message of the excited workers seeing the change in attitude towards their welfare and progressions by Governor Adeleke. The promise of career progression was one of the factors that enticed many to join the civil service and endure the series of challenges they encountered.
But the APC made a terrible mess of that promise, unfairly subjecting Osun workers to emotional and economic pains necessitated by the denial of moving the ladder in the service. Even when Gboyega Oyetola, the immediate past governor in the state, pretended to be interested in the growth of workers in the state by granting promotion to them in 2019, it did not go beyond the papers conveying them as he failed throughout his tenure to
Peoplesmind
