Professionals urge Southwest governors to revive public works dept

A Southwest-based group, South West Professional Forum, (SOWPROF) has called on Governors in the zoned to launch the rebirth of the region’s civil service and public works departments, saying that such a move will help uplift the region in the face of the dwindling economic fortunes of the country.

The group’s President, Chief Segun Ajibulu, a public administrator said the future of the South West region lay in an effective and professional civil service, creative exploration of untapped natural resources and regional integration of the state’s political, economic and cultural structures.

“We are concerned with the fall in the Gross Domestic Product, (GDP) of Nigeria. We are worried that states are not able to pay salaries due to no fault of theirs. We are concerned that the civil service is currently weak and needs to be strengthened to meet the new challenges. The future of the people of the South West lay in economic and political unity of purpose”, he said.

With the population of the South West region in the range of 50 million people, Ajibulu added, there is the need to initiate a social security system that will take care of the needs of the aged, children and the unemployed.