By Adekola Afolabi & Kemi Olatunde
The Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has assured state workers that his administration would not leave unpaid salaries for his successor after his eight years in office.
Akeredolu who explained that although his administration inherited seven months salary arrears out of which six months had been paid by his government, he is equally determined to offset all salary arrears presently owed workers in the state before the expiration of his tenure.
This is coming as the Governor emphasised that his administration is determined to sustain and continually improve on efforts at delivering effective and qualitative health care and social welfare services to the people of the state.
According to him, he had vowed not to owe workers’ salary since the inception of his administration, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic badly affected the finance of the state and hindered regular payment of salaries.
The Governor spoke at the Ondo State Health Summit, held at the International Culture and Events Centre (The Dome), Akure, the Ondo state capital.
“I am glad to inform you that we made giant strides in all of these areas. Unfortunately, COVID-19 Pandemic came in the third year into our First Term with its attendant economic crisis which has since put governments across the world in financial strait jackets.
“Notwithstanding the precarious situation we inherited in 2017, you will recall that we had settled six of the seven months arrears of salaries.
“We employed and have continued to employ qualified personnel for our primary, secondary and tertiary health care facilities. We equally brought in several containers of hospital equipment worth billions of naira from the United States.
“Again, we established Teaching Hospital Complexes in both Akure and Ondo as well as established the Contributory Health Insurance Commission among other achievements that are well known to most of our health sector practitioners in the State”, Akeredolu added.
The Governor stated that efforts are in top gear to continually employ qualified personnels for primary, secondary and tertiary health care facilities, stressing that shipments of several containers of hospital equipment worth billions of naira had been brought in to the state from the United States.
Akeredolu also acknowledged that the need to quickly reposition the health sector with utmost commitment and collaboration is a task that must be done by all stakeholders, just as he reassured all medical and health workers that health care remains a central focus of his administration’s REDEEMED Agenda.
“We will, therefore, spare no effort in promptly attending to your welfare. The current issues relating to salary payment are receiving our attention even at the national level. We are working hard to ensure that our State is better funded and supported without delay in order to deliver on our constitutional responsibility to our people”, he said.
The Governor, however, commended the health workers for their level of perseverance in the face of hardship and also appealed to them that their welfare remains a top priority.
He further stressed that his administration will not vacillate in its determination to ensure that the people and residents of the State are duly vaccinated against the deadly virus.
“To this end, we shall continue to enforce the deadline already issued for everybody in this State to be vaccinated or forfeit the privileges from government such as entrance to public places and access to certain services, among others” he noted
Earlier in her Welcome Address, The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Mrs Folukemi Aladenola said the health summit was intended to tap into the experience of experts in the medical profession, policy makers, technocrats and critical stakeholders in the health sector towards updating the health policy in the state.