Workers Day: Organised Labour Made Me Who I’m Today – Oshiomhole

oshiomhole_969270220Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on Wednesday reinstated 41 teachers that were sacked about seven months ago into the state civil service.

It would be recalled that the teachers were sacked on issues bordering on absence from duty.

Oshiomhole also announced the recall of the sacked education secretaries in local education authorities; the recall he said, took place a week ago.

“In the spirit of our 101 years of Organised Labour, in the spirit of our movement, in the spirit of our labour ancestors and in the spirit of today, I will order the commissioner to recall all the teachers and they will resume by next week” he said.

“I should be worried about the children of Edo people just as I should be worried about my children. We are going to rebuild more schools, recruit more teachers so that for every subject in our schools, we must have qualified teachers.”

The governor, also cleared the air on his appointment of a non-career civil servant – Maj. Lawrence Loye (retd.), as the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Public Utilities in 2012 adding that he had no regret for the action.

He said, “I am not a cheap politician; I want to be a leader, who will be conscious of tomorrow. Let me tell you, this was deliberate. You may not understand, for us to get what you see in the street, sometimes, I put in 20 hours out of 24.

“I go round to check what is going on. Some of our civil servants inflate contracts. If I am an absentee governor, I will sign away your taxes. You may not understand what drives me, I came here angry that Edo cannot be what it has become, but for us to change it, it cannot be business as usual.

“I will never use my skills to manipulate labour. I can make honest mistakes, but I will never use my skill to manipulate labour. I will not take a deliberate action that will weaken the foundation of organised labour because without labour, I will not be here. Remove labour from me and nothing will be left, but that does not mean I will just sit down and shout freedom, because I have a responsibility to keep Edo working.”