THE CHAIRMAN EDO STATE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION PRINCESS (MRS) EKIUWA INNEH FNIM – A GREAT WOMAN AND REPUTABLE LEADER

THE CHAIRMAN EDO STATE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION PRINCESS (MRS) EKIUWA INNEH FNIM – A GREAT WOMAN AND REPUTABLE LEADER

remarkable feature of the government under the leadership of His Excellency Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki of Edo State for which it will for long be acknowledged is the historical opportunity given to feminine gender to distinguish them in public governance in Edo State. To its credit, the Obaseki’s administration successfully unveiled a rare class of seasoned professionals amazons that distinguished themselves in all sphere of co-operate and public governance in Nigeria. Interestingly, when some of their male counter-parts were grossly found wanting, these great ambassadors of the Nigerian, and indeed Edo womanhood rose to the occasion and excelled exceedingly beyond all expectations. This woman of great virtuous, a woman who is the Chairman, State Civil Service Commission, Edo State. A woman full with vigor and energy, hardworking, honest and transparent one, she is a woman of integrity and purpose for life, she is an expert dealing on Civil Service matters, one with a heart of a lion ,blessed with the gift of counseling. She has distinguished herself very well in effectively piloting the affairs of Edo State Civil Service Commission that every Tom, Dick Harry proud to be associated with. A well loved personality, in the Civil Service is evident with her everyday growing of her rising intimidating credentials for all to see and admires. She is a woman of humble, simple, erudite personality, who has no room for hatred. She has indeed strengthened the Edo State Civil Service Commission through collaboration with transparency and other key stakeholders in seeing that there is no room for corruption. A very devoted Christian with fear of God in all her dealings with others; she is a highly certified known philanthropist and social crusader. Her monumental achievements in the Edo State Civil Service Commission and other previous positions headed attested to remarkable managerial integrity that has made her a model of excellence and pride of the Nigerian womanhood.

Excerpts:

As the Chairman of State Civil Service Commission under your watch, what has been your achievements of Edo State Civil Service Commission?

First of all, the commission is the creation of the constitution and the constitution space out the duties of Civil Service Commission whether at the Federal or at the State. The commission is invested in the responsibility of recruiting good materials for the State Civil Service, we discipline, we promote and we as well transfer if they want to move from one tender to another, so the general welfare of Civil Service invested in the Commission as defined by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.

Talkingabout the welfare, what can you say about the welfarerism of Edo State Civil Servants?

Promotion is the welfare. We promote and we discipline them. So welfare par-say is not a mandate of the Commission but Government provides welfare services which is by paying their salaries, pay their resolution, give them awards from time to time and these are promptly implemented where it concerns the commission and since we got in there, we have been here for almost 9years as this is 2nd tenor for us, the tenor is 10years, we already did 1years previously before the current administration re-appointed me. As approved by government on yearly basis, we have promoted some Civil Servants and right now we are doing promotions interviews. The first batch we did was about five hundred (500) and we are currently working and interviewing second batch which is the batch of three hundred plus two (300+2) and that is just one item on our schedule of duties. We are also in the process of recruiting, examinations are on and as soon as we are through, though we don’t wait for one to end , we have to do everything simultaneously from one to ensure that the system move forward. In summary, the duties of the commission are as defined by constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.

There is this story that is been banded about or circulated everywhere is that there is no job. Will you encourage the teeming youth that are graduating on daily basis to join the Civil Service or should they go entrepreneurial activities?

Let me firstly correct the impression of ‘’there no jobs’’ in Edo State, it is not only in Edo State, it is across the world. There is intensity of job opportunities in everywhere in the world. It is an individual thing as some people are good as entrepreneurs, some are not good in that direction and they want to work in the service but even those who are working in the service, there is what we called upward mobility, somebody is here today and finds a better job, you can’t hold the person back and you know right now there is high tonnage of people who wants to go over-seas for greener pasture so it is always fluid as people come in and they go out but the decision to work in Service or elsewhere depends on individuals but basically the service is a good place to work in because of the security of Job. The turn-over is not as high in the service and citizens of the public sector because there are rules and regulation guiding exists, so it is not just easy to throw out a civil servants but if you have committed an offense, you will be dealt with in accordance with the rules and regulations.

Having said that the civil service is a very good place to work, can you throw more light; is Civil Service job a noble profession or what can you say about Edo State Civil Service?

Edo state civil service is a noble job because if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t have recognized me. You recognized me because am here, I didn’t start as chairman State civil service commission, I started from the beginning and I grow through the ranks became a Permanent Secretary, Head Of Service and on retirement, I was brought here to Head the Commission. You cannot say it is better to work in this place or that place, it depends on your goals, depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for money, may be the service is not the place for you but if you are somebody who is contented no matter how limb the salary of the civil service are, if you are contented, you find out you are happy with what you are getting but if your goal is to make huge amount within a shortest possible time, then the service may not be an appropriate place for you. I cannot prescribe to everybody to come and work in the service, I encourage our youth as we just advertized recently. We are going to commence interview, as at last year we did recruitment and some number of youths were employed. Government cannot employ everybody and that is while Edo State right now is creating enabling environment for people to do business and make money. They are training them in skills acquisition through Edo job, there are so many programs the Governor is doing, encouraging them to go into farming, so it is not everybody that has the skills for business, and farming. So some people will be in the service while other are in Oil industry so it all depends.

Is the Governor of Edo State, His Excellency Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki a Civil Service Friendly Governor?

I will say yes because if he was not civil service friendly, he wouldn’t be promoting people as we are doing now, promotions may not be as regular as possible, we are doing 2021 promotion stand to scale it through 2022 promotion so that promotion can be done as at when due. On May 2022, at the may day celebration, he increased the minimum-wage in Edo State to forty thousand (40,000) and I think that is the only state that has done so just as about now, Lagos sate that has the pool of areas they generates internal revenue are thinking of moving their own forward as their governor announced in May without being prompted by anybody, it was a surprise pronouncement at the stadium that he was increasing the minimum-wage from (30,000 to 40,000). It may not be huge but at least if he wasn’t thinking well of the service, he won’t do that. Salaries are regular by the 24th, 25th to 26th people start getting their alert for salaries; for those entitle to pensions they also get their alert. They are challenges quite alright but I think the civil servants in Edo State are quite happy; the Governor is doing his best to bring success to everybody within the limit of available resources.

There is a glass ceiling syndrome that prevents women from getting to the pinnacle of their career, how have you been able to surmount this hurdle?

Well people talk about breaking the glass cylinder. You can’t get to the roof or less you climb the ladder so if you find yourself in the service or anywhere you work, you start from the lower rank of the ladder, then you begin to climb, but all being equal in the same. If you are working in an establishment and you embezzle their funds of course they will throw you out. How do you get to the ceiling? Well, I don’t believe in gender because there are some people when anything happen, they will say because am a woman, I never allowed that to cross my mind when I joined the service. I did my job and I never close before 6pm but I ran my home effectively, is it the school run? but it has never had any effect on my job and I make sure I did the job well, I scroll myself when I joined the service, I never work in the service as a junior level, I came in as an officer and it was determine from the world goal to put my best foot forward and when you are competent and efficient nobody is going to pull you down, though you can always have obstacles on your way as a woman but when you are tenacious and you proven yourself worthy nobody can block you, even though someone is shutting the door, you try to open it so it is determination. Throughout my career, I never experience that kind of obstruction. If I haired, I will speak to apologize. If I didn’t know what I was expected to do and I didn’t feel comfortable to ask my immediate boss, then I will look for somebody I will be comfortable with for that the same capacity and tell them what my challenges are and they put me through. I do my job very well at every point in time even as here in commission. When we are not cleared on any issues, we write to Abuja on the Federal Civil Service Commission or anywhere and they throw light on issue before us so that we don’t make mistakes, that is the way you break the glass ceiling and of course because is a structured system, all things being equal, you know you move from one level to the other, before you know it, your head is touching the ceiling and if you want to climb the ceiling without those stages, you wouldn’t know where you will fall to.

What guiding principle has helped you rise to this level?

Humility, willingness to learn and obedient. If you don’t obey your superior of course you are going to be in his discomfort because no boss wants to be challenged. You must be humble with that sense of humility is very vital and I bought that from my father. If things go wrong, don’t attribute anything that is not connected with that issue to it or you find out that people quickly says because tribe, am this tribe and the other person is not from that tribe or am a woman, the other person is a man. No, deal with the issues as they are on merit and if you do that, you will find out that the environment is pleasant for you to work in

You are a role model to women, what will be your advice to younger ladies?

Well, I have just previously enumerated some of the attributes that has helped me to survive. Humility, obedient, hard work, punctuality, regular at work and you give the rest to God. The value you saw in me that led you to where we are now, so maybe you should identify such values and also pass them across. You might have seen certain sterling qualities in me so it is not too comfortable when you talk about yourself it people that will tell you what you are.

We have seen how far you have gone in life, what legacy would you like to leave behind?

Legacy of hard work, humility, contentment, obedient, working in accordant with the rules and regulations. Civil Service Commission is not a market place, even though it is , there are rules and regulations guiding the conducts or users of the market. We will be better determined by those who will come after us because if you are humble, humility, contentment and respectful of course all these are attributes and how you handle whatever issues comes to you and those ones will be recorded in the documents you are going to leave behind for posterity to judge you. Posterity is a better job of whom you are and you are also judging it for coming here to present an award to me is a sort of judgment.