Ondo government pledges to make journalists perm secs

Ondo State government has assured that members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) would soon be appointed as permanent secretaries in the state’s civil service.

This was sequel to the appeal by the national president of NUJ, Chris Isiguzo, to the government to stop marginalising members of the union in the appointment of permanent secretaries.

Isiguzo made the plea at the Governor’s Office in Akure on Friday during a visit to Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, as part of his three-day working visit to state’s chapter of NUJ.

Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Ifedayo Abegunde; the State Head of Service (HoS0, Mr. Dare Aragbaiye; and the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, received the NUJ National Leadership award on behalf of the governor, who was on an official visit outside the state.

The NUJ president also expressed satisfaction with the performance of Akeredolu’s administration in the area of road construction and provision of modern classrooms in public schools.

He said from what he had been reading and what he had observed since he arrived in the state, it was obvious that Akeredolu’s administration was doing very well in road construction and provision of conducive learning environment through school renovation.

Isiguzo, who commended Akeredolu for his decision to provide Life Insurance Scheme for all members of his Government House Press Crew, urged the governor to extend such gesture to all practising journalists in the Sunshine State.

Governor Akeredolu said all the requests of the NUJ national leadership would be studied meticulously, assuring that qualified NUJ members would soon be considered for the position of permanent secretaries.

He noted that the appointment of permanent secretaries since his assumption of office had strictly been based on merit, adding that no segment of the public service would suffer marginalisation under his watch.