Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji has stressed the need for members of the State executive council to always maintain high level of discipline and principle of collective responsibility in the discharge of their duties in order to redefine governance and achieve the desired development for the state.
Governor Oyebanji stated this on Tuesday during the inaugural expanded Exco meeting held at the Executive Council Chamber, Governor’s office, Ado-Ekiti, shortly after the new members of the council took the oath of office.
He urged them to always be guided by the oath they have taken in the discharge of their official responsibilities.
The Governor, who noted that the executive council, the highest decision-making body in the state, had the power to make or mar the future of the state, called on all council members to exercise restraints on attitude that could run down the government and the state and ensure that they focus only on things that will be to the overall interest of the people.
While promising to be fair to all and support them in their bid to carry out their ministerial assignments of repositioning the state for effective service delivery and the drive to ensure prosperity for all, Governor Oyebanji charged them to utilize positively the opportunity bestowed on them to turn the fortune of the state around.
Governor Oyebanji also charged the commissioners who would oversee new ministries to bear with various challenges they might face stressing that with time the state would attain the necessary stability it desires.
“Whatever we are going to do to make your working environment conducive and comfortable for you, we will surely do that”.
Speaking further, the Governor told the new members that decisions at exco meetings were based on consensus, stressing that once the decision has been taken it became binding on all members regardless of their initial stand on the matter.
“I want to thank you for accepting to serve Ekiti people and to also remind us of the responsibility that this has imposed on us. The Executive Council is the highest decision making body in Ekiti state, within this hallowed chamber, we can make or mar the future of the state, and I want us to also be guided by the oath of office we took and the oath of secrecy we have taking.
“Experience tells me that many people are here for different reasons, some of you will take council documents, go out and leak it to people to destroy the government. But let me appeal and advise whoever does that, if you bring this house down, you bring it on all of us, but some people will feel the impact more than the others.
“Don’t do things that will make your community recall, because if any local government complains about any commissioner and the leaders agree, I will show that person out of this place.
“I will respect all of you, I will provide support for all of you but I will not hesitate to use the big stick if the occasion demands it, I don’t lack courage to take very hard decision but I am going to be fair, compassionate and I will treat all of you with utmost respect. You can be sure of that but I am not going to condone any act of indiscipline.
“Part of the concerns of some of our leaders is the size of this exco, but I look at all of you, I don’t know anybody I can leave behind and I have taken this risk to bring all of you on board believing that we are going to share the same vision that we had. I just plead with all of us to be guided by fear of God, to do what is just and what is right in the interest of our people, in the interest of our conscience and to also know that one day, we will stand before God to give account of the unique opportunities that God has given us” the Governor added.
