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Dapo Abiodun, Obasanjo discuss ways to move Ogun forward

By Charles Coffie-Gyamfi and Bukky Olajide, Abeokuta
10 January 2020   |   4:30 am
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday paid a courtesy visit to Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun at his Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta office. The former President had a closed-door meeting with the governor

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday paid a courtesy visit to Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun at his Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta office.

The former President had a closed-door meeting with the governor, which lasted for an hour.

Obasanjo, who refused to tell journalists the details of his discussion with the governor but said that issues on education, agriculture, and rural development, among others, formed part of their discussion, said: “I have come to say Happy New Year to the governor and then, of course, I haven’t been here since his (Dapo Abiodun) assumption of office.

“I have come to welcome him (Abiodun) to his seat and raise few issues that I believe are of interest to the development of the state in the area of education, agriculture, rural development and another sort of things.”

When asked to give his assessment of the governor’s seven-month-old administration, the former president said: “We had a wonderful discussion. I have not come here to do an assessment, I have come here to promote what will move Ogun State forward.”

Meanwhile, the governor has ordered that the last-minute appointment of permanent secretaries made in the twilight of the immediate past administration of Senator Ibikunle Amosun be regularised.

He also directed the mainstreaming and ‘regularisation’ of appointment of over 1,000 graduates recruited into the State Civil Service by the same administration.

Abiodun, who spoke at the swearing-in of eight newly-appointed permanent secretaries at Obas’ Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, said that despite some flaws noted in the appointments and recruitments, his government had decided to be magnanimous as a people-centered administration not to be vindictive.

He said: “It is important to make public that we received with great recommendations the report of the review committee on the appointments and recruitments made by the immediate past administration between February and May 2019.

“Despite some flaws, we have upheld all the appointments of permanent secretaries made in the twilight of the last administration.”

He, therefore, cautioned against lobbying by civil servants to attain unmerited position, saying all the new permanent secretaries got their appointment on merit.

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