Oshiomhole reinstates sacked teachers





Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State on Wednesday reinstated 41 teachers into the service of the state.

The teachers were sacked seven months ago on accusation bordering on absence from duty.

The governor, who stated this, also announced the recall of the sacked education secretaries in local education authorities.

The recall of the secretaries, he said, took place a week ago.

 He said, "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.

"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, who also spoke on the appointment of a non-career civil servant as the permanent secretary in the state service, said he had no regret for the action.

Oshiomhole in 2012 appointed Maj. Lawrence Loye (retd.), as the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Public Utilities.

The governor 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."



Punch