There was palpable excitement among Cross River State civil servants yesterday as Governor Ben Ayade kept his promise to pay January salary before the weekend.
All across the various ministries, departments and agencies, workers could be seen jubilating and discussing among themselves that the governor kept to his words to pay January salary before the weekend.
It would be recalled that the State Governor had directed on the 12th of January that salaries of workers in the state be paid on or before January 15th to cushion the effects of “January economic hardship”.
The Governor had given the directive when he paid an unscheduled visit to the state’s Land and Urban Development Ministry in Calabar, to ascertain the level of staff punctuality.
Governor Ayade who had given reasons for the early payment of salaries said the workers will be broke by now due to the yuletide expenditures. “We paid so early (15th) in December and so you should be broke by now and this is the time you need money to send the children back to school. I am also concerned about your welfare and well-being and that is why I am directing that the salaries for the month of January be paid between now and Friday.”
He stressed the need for workers to be disciplined and imbibe an industrial culture to achieve his administration’s plans to revolutionize the state industrially.
Expressing excitement that the governor has consistently kept his promise to pay salaries early, John Achu, a civil servant with the state ministry of agriculture said: “In fact, I could not believe it when I got the alert. I thought I was dreaming. Ayade is a God-sent redeemer to the people of Cross River state. “With what he is doing in the state Cross-Riverians are in for more juicy packages from our digital governor.”
Collaborating Achu’s position Mrs. Rita Okon of the Due Process and Price Intelligence Agency echoed: “God bless the hard working governor, God bless Prof. Ayade. Honestly I was wondering how I will pay my children school fees and take care of the home when one of my colleagues in the office started dancing after receiving an alert only to confirm Governor Ayade is a man of his words when she revealed that our salaries have been paid and showed us the alert only for mine to come in some minutes later. We had to organize a prayer session in our office for the governor. He must succeed and those fighting him for no reason will all fail in Jesus name. Ayade must complete his 8 years.” she added
Pastor Emma Ikwen of the state Internal Revenue Board on his part stated that this confirms the text I got from the governor’s Media Team (CSG) on Tuesday 12 January that his Excellency had directed that our salaries should be paid on or before January 15th. It is great this governor is keeping to his words he has clearly shown that workers’ welfare is of top priority to him and I want to assure him that we the workers in the state will not disappoint him and I also want to call on those fighting the governor unnecessarily should rather join him to make Cross River a better state rather than their continuous distraction. Ayade has clearly shown Cross River will be better under him after 8 years by the grace of God.
According to Christy Archibong of the Ministry of Works, “It was a very noisy session in our office today when salary alerts got to us. My colleagues started whistling and singing, praying for his Excellency. We have never seen this before we are very happy with Governor Ayade. It was only on Tuesday we got the message that our salaries will be paid before the week runs out and truly it happened. God bless Ayade.”
Workers in the state were paid their December salaries on the 15th. The development shows that Cross River state is the first state to have paid workers this year.
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