ADO-EKITI –
Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has said that the government will soon organize bonds to offset the outstanding gratuities of pensioners and later find a way of paying back.
The Governor dropped the hint in Ado-Ekiti, during a meeting with the United States Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr Edward Kallon.
He said, “We are interested a lot in the bond and we have a practical challenge here for example in our state, we are looking at a way of developing innovative bond to address it.
“We have a lot of people who have retired from service and their gratuities have piled up over past couple of years running into billions of naira that we are not immediately able to pay and I don’t think it is fair for all this people who have devoted years of their lives to serving the state.
“That is why we started the social security scheme for the elderly as a safety net to address this sort of issue but for us we think it should be possible for us to develop a bond that can enable us pay off all these and then find a way to offset that bond over a long term”.
Governor Fayemi at the meeting stressed the need for the nation to address the issues of employment among the youth; increasing inequality and poverty and insecurity.
He expressed the willingness of his administration to work with the United Nations in the area of peace-keeping and conflict management.
According to him, “It is no longer a debate that we have democracy but we have to be careful not to be overrun by the explosive demographic growth that you spoke about, the nature of the extreme poverty but particularly the increasing inequality and what that has brought about by way of the violent extremism and the impatience of the youth that are at the receiving end of these challenges and we face it daily.
“We are recruiting teachers, and it will shock you, Ekiti is one of the smallest states, on the first day of our recruitment, we had 6500 applications online, by 12.00noon this afternoon, we had 9,000 for teaching position that will start mid-September in our basic schools.
Speaking, Mr Kallon reaffirmed United Nations’ resolve to support Ekiti State Government in its drive to achieve the vision of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the state.
Kallon said the potential areas of partnership with the Nigerian government include advocacy for legislation on establishment of the National Commission For Peace, Reconciliation And Mediation and deepening understanding of the SDGs and localization at the state level in partnership with the Governors’ forum.
