Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has said that he had not appointed commissioners to form State Executive Council in the last six months of his second tenure because he has been redefining the structure of governance.
“in the last six months, we have tried to redefine the structures of governance, working through every layer of the civil service, define the roles, the responsibilities; trying to understand the resources available, and put in place key performance indicators and scorecards for every MDA in government.
“And this we did, such that the civil servants have no excuse to say they couldn’t do what they are doing because of political interference.
“So we hae tried to keep politics out of government in the last seven months, to redefine the processes; to define the structures and define the service delivery criteria for government.”
Governor Obaseki, who spoke to newsmen today, June 23 after a private audience with Professor Ibrahim Gambari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential villa, Abuja, stressed that no matter how great a cabinet is, if the government and the functions of government are not operating properly, the executive cannot function optimally.
“Now that we have done that, we now hired a whole crop of civil and public servants. We have about 1500 of them. We have hired, and we are introducing technology. We have, perhaps one of the best training facilities in the country. And we are now ready for the political class for the commissioners, to now step in to government and do what they are supposed to do and give political direction to the process of government.”
On the appointment of commissioners, Governor Obaseki said that he had already mandated wards, local and governments heads to give him nominations and that the nominations are coming in from the wards and the local governments.
According the governor, the selection team is being put in place to screen these candidates for submission to the state House of Assembly.
