By Ayodele Oni
Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has sworn in 26 Commissioners and allocated Ministries to them.
However, he takes direct charge of the Ministry of Works, while his Deputy, Mr Kola Adewusi, takes charge of the Ministry of Sports and Special needs.
The swearing -in ceremony on Wednesday, in Osogbo, followed the clearance of the nominees by the State House of Assembly.
Adekeke, while addressing the new Commissioners, charged them to be productive and shun corruption.
He warned that he will not hesitate to sack any of them found wanting in any act of corruption capable of tarnishing the good interest of his administration, which focuses on delivering the dividends of democracy to the good people of Osun state.
“You all are stakeholders and must be above board and discharge your lawful responsibility with utmost sincerity.
“It is important to affirm that my preoccupation throughout the process was a merit-based pathway.
“This passion of mine for putting together qualified hands was reflected in the template the party applied.
“I seek a very responsive government that listens and satisfies the wishes of the people. So your goal must be real service to the people with honesty and integrity in public service. You must be above board. Corrupt conduct will be heavily sanctioned.
“As political heads of your ministries, you must be very innovative; generate and implement new ideas.
“In times of national economic emergency, I love achieving much with little resources. Be prudent and adopt measures that reduce cost of projects and services.
“As we all know, I am a team player. There won’t be any room for solo actors in our cabinet. You must work as a team with a common goal to make a difference in the lives of our people.
“Above all, my leadership is about due process and rule of law. You must not cut corners. I will not compromise transparency and accountability.
“As you are coming on board, the task before us is enormous. We have a duty to turn our adversity into assets. We must re-engineer our economy, generate wealth, engage our youths, deepen our economic base, embrace the digital economy and implement our climate action agenda.
“We are the innovators to overcome our state’s deficit across sectors. I know you are full of new options for the greater Osun agenda.
“I believe your heads and hands are full of solutions to governance problems of our time. Bring them on.
“You will find in me a receptive and supportive head of administration that will harness potentials and capacities, an executive retreat is in the making for all top appointees and officials.
”You will be adequately briefed on public service rules as well as your working relationship with bureaucrats, who are accounting officers of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies. I will insist on harmonious partnership with the civil service, we are partners in progress.
“You must avail yourselves of details of your duties and responsibilities within the governmental structures.
“The people of Osun have high expectations from this administration. We have not and will not disappoint them.
“My team will redouble its efforts to deliver on our election promises. We will sustain our high performing rating. If we can deliver so much with a Governor -in-Council, our team will be superlative as a State Executive Council.”
