By Amos Igbebe
There are indications that the administration of Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, Governor of Delta State, has appointed more than required number of Special Advisers and Senior Special Assistants in the actualization of his programme for the people of Delta State.
A source at the office of the Secretary to the State Government, Festus Ovie Agas, told 247ureports.com that many of the SAs are of the opinion that the governor had appointed too many SAs making them redundant and ineffective in their various offices.
The source who has privileged information for the fact that source works in the complex of the SSG’s office where letters for political appointments are issued said “the Special Advisers and Special Assistants are too many, even they themselves are complaining that they are too many in the government”.
The source further said in the midst of the numerous appointments, everywhere is tight as the administration is holding tight to money, noting that the people are crying for money in the state.
Among the Special Advisers are former Senator Emmanuel Agwariavwodo, who took over from Pius Ewerhido, representing Delta Central at the Senate; former Acting Governor of the state, Sam Obi; former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Martin Okonta; former Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Basil Ganagana.
Others include former Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joseph Otumara, former member of the House of Representatives, Paschal Adigwe; former Special Adviser to Goodluck Jonathan on Project Monitoring and Evaluation, Prof. Sylvester Monye; catalogue of media assistants, a number of special assistants on social and new media with Dantes Odogwu as head, who took over the leadership from one Godspwower Omafuwe, due to his incompetence.
Others are Special Assistants on youths and community affairs drawn from various communities and youth groups across the state. Many Deltans have, however, picked a hole in the appointments, saying many of the appointments were majorly from the Governor’s ethnic group, the Ika axis of the state.
Besides the appointment of the SAs, there are indications that the governor has no intention of employing civil servants in his administration.
A source at one of the state’s agencies, affiliated to one of the core ministries, told 247ureports.com that the governor is not disposed to employing Deltans into the state civil service.
The source who is a senior member of the agency said the organization made application to the governor to obtain permission to engage casual workers in the outfit, but contrary to their expectation, Okowa turned down the request saying his administration is interested in empowering youths towards skills development and not employment into the civil service.
He said the company had lost many staff to death, some had retired while others had left for other ministries and agencies in the state, thereby creating a large vacuum which needed to be filled for optimum performance of the company.
He said the departure of these staff had badly affected the operation of the company, leading to the request, not even for full time staff but casual workers, yet the governor turned down the request from the company.
