Kwara State Governor, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed has charged newly-appointed political office holders in the state to add value to governance or prepare to be dropped.
Governor Ahmed gave the charge at the Government House, Ilorin during the swearing in of the Secretary to the Kwara State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, Head of Service, Hajia Zahra Oma, Chief of Staff, Alhaji Yusuf Abdulwahab and Special Advisers.
According to the governor, the appointments were made in an atmosphere of economic challenge with great and increasing expectations of citizens from the government good governance and economic well-being. He stressed that the people have high expectations of the government and emphasised that citizens need to be empowered and elevated within the shortest possible time.
“This administration is in a hurry. We are keen to fulfil our mandate in the shortest possible time. I, therefore, expect you to hit the ground running. You must quickly key into and add value to the administration or give way to others who can.
You must bring a sense of urgency to your new assignment. In doing that, I do not expect you to just think out of the box. On the contrary, I expect you to throw the box away and fashion out innovative ways to contribute to our development agenda for the state and our people”, he said.
The governor noted that given the prevailing realities, governance could no longer be business as usual just as success is now mandatory and non-performance not an option. He said the political appointees must apply best practices in all aspects of governance, make prudence, accountability, transparency and fear of God their watchwords.
On the State Civil Service, the governor directed the new Head of Service to sensitize civil servants to the ethics of service and excellence in performance: “You should similarly identify the hidden talents who can catapult the service to the next level. Furthermore, I implore you to ensure their effective deployment and positive engagement to this administration”, he told the new Head of Service.
He promised that delay in payment of workers’ salaries would soon become a thing of the past with increased Internally Generated Revenue expected to be achieved with the establishment of the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service.