Barely three days after the oversight visit of the Ad-Hoc Committee of the House of Representatives on Rivers State Administration, the Coalition for Civil Service Reforms (CCSR) has applauded the Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd.), over the reforms of the state Civil Service.
The group’s National President, Comrade LarryKing Amos, in a statement on Monday, also expressed satisfaction with efforts by Ibas to revive infrastructures in the state.
The Coalition also expressed gratitude to Ibas for the payment of workers’ salaries and for putting the welfare of workers forward in the state.
The Coalition averred that, “such laudable interventions and welfare are responsible for the high spirits and great motivation of the civil servants, which is, by extension, responsible for the peace, unity, and harmonious relationship between the Labour Force and the state government in the last few months.”
While thanking the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee for acknowledging the many efforts of the Sole Administrator in the civil service sector, the Coalition also said that the observation of the near-collapse structures of the State Secretariat, where the civil servants always scamper for safety due to its poor state, and the charge to quickly overhaul it, was an answer to a decade-long prayer of workers in the state.
“As a group that has been clamouring for reforms in the civil service sector in Nigeria, we have written a series of letters to the former Governor of Rivers when our members from the state sent an SOS to us, alerting us about the deplorable state of the House of Assembly Complex, the Civil Service Commission, and the State Secretariat, especially the 6th and 7th floors, which are literally unfit for human occupation due to life-threatening conditions.
“But since the inception of this current administration, the feelers we have got from the State show a man who is intentional about the safety and welfare of civil servants. We have taken cognisance of the many laudable interventions of the Sole Administrator, His Excellency, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, and this gladdens our hearts. For the first time in a long while, we are having a government that has brought succour and restored hope to the civil servants in Rivers State.
“We must, on a very serious note, appreciate the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee for approving the urgent renovation of the State Secretariat, the building that warehouses civil servants in the state. This intervention is not only timely, it is life-saving and, as such, calls for commendation,” the Coalition added.
It would be recalled that the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee, on Wednesday, mandated an immediate overhaul of the crumbling Rivers State Secretariat complex and the urgent relocation of civil servants from unsafe work environments.
The directive followed an emergency inspection led by the House Leader and Committee Chairman, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, who assessed the deplorable conditions of the State Secretariat and the stalled Rivers State House of Assembly project.
Professor Ihonvbere described the Secretariat as being in a state worse than facilities in war-torn Gaza, pointing to structural hazards, crumbling floor tiles, leaking roofs, exposed electrical wiring, and a complete absence of basic amenities, including functional toilets, drinking water, and proper furniture.
The committee, therefore, ordered the immediate closure of hazardous floors and the relocation of staff to secure alternative office spaces.
