Don’t Use Govt Fund To Buy Media Space In Celebration Of My Birthday – Delta Gov Tells Appointees

Ifeanyi-OkowaGovernor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State yester­day in Asaba, the state capital, directed all ministries, depart­ments and agencies in the state not to use govern­ment funds to buy media space to congratulate him on his 56th birthday coming up on July 8.

The governor, who handed down the order while swearing in 12 com­missioners and five special advisers, passed a similar message to his friends and well-wishers, urging them to channel such funds to the empowerment of less privileged persons in their communities.

Speaking to the new appointees, Okowa charged them to be honest, diligent and responsible in the discharge of their du­ties, warning that activities of government will no lon­ger be business as usual.

He said his administra­tion has zero tolerance for corruption in the manage­ment of government busi­ness and called on the new appointees to join him in the fight against corruption in order to retain the im­plicit confidence and trust of the people.

“Corruption starves the state of valuable resources that could be used for in­frastructural development, improve our educational systems, boost our health­care system and take care of the poor and needy, even worse is that anywhere it is allowed to fester, the cost of doing business becomes prohibitive.

“I want to seek the sup­port and partnership of all public office holders to lead the fight against cor­ruption in their respective offices because that is the only way to retain the trust and confidence the people have bestowed upon us”, he stated.

Okowa, who congratulated the new ap­pointees, further charged them to shun ethnic poli­tics and sectionalism and regard the entire state as their constituency, stress­ing that they must be fair to all Deltans.

While imploring them to key into the S.M.A.R.T agenda of his administration es­pecially the job creation programmes, the governor stressed that, “it is incumbent on you to make the attain­ment of these lofty goals in the agenda your watch­word, they must be the fo­cal point around which all your decisions and actions will revolve”.