Ripples In Osun Civil Service As Adeleke Plans To Extend AG’s Tenure

• Governor Bastardising Public Service – Workers

• Your Policy Anti Civil Servants – APC

There is an ongoing plan by Governor Ademola Adeleke to extend the statutory tenure of the Accountant General of the state, Mr. Rasheed Olalere. 

Olalere, who was appointed by former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola on May 21, 2022, is due for retirement on March 24, 2024, when he will be attaining the mandatory retirement age of 60 years.

However, Adeleke has reportedly concluded plans to allow Olalere to remain in the service for the next three years. 

This is coming weeks after the Governor extended the tenure of the Head of Service, Mr. Ayanleye Aina, by three years on January 24, 2024, when he clocked 60 years, and was due for retirement.

OSUN DEFENDER observed that the AG’s tenure extension plan is already generating ripples and causing disaffection among the top civil servants, especially accounting officers in the service.

Findings revealed that the civil servants who are opposed to Olalere’s tenure extension have been going from one place to another to canvass reasons why the Governor needs to respect the public service rules on retirement and career progression.

The concerned civil servants described Adeleke’s move as an aberration to the state civil service, stating that the Governor would be setting bad precedence with such a move. 

According to the civil servants, Adeleke’s plan to extend Olalere’s tenure is because the Account General attends the same church with the Governor’s family, while his wife is also a staff of Adeleke University, Ede. 

One of the Accountants at the Governor’s Office told OSUN DEFENDER that Adeleke has already been manipulated into extending Olalere’s tenure. 

The accountant who does not want his name in print said: “Our governor has been manipulated and he has agreed to extend the AG’s tenure. Of course, that is against the civil service rule and it is inimical to the career progression of other civil servants, especially those in the accounting section who are looking forward to being in that office one day. 

“You know civil servants, like another organised sector, move up when there is a vacancy at the top. We wait for years; moving little by little on the ladder of promotion with the hope of getting to the peak of our career one day. It will be unfair for anyone, irrespective of the reasons, to deprive us of our final elevation in the service.

“The Governor is setting bad precedence. He had extended the tenure of the Head of Service by three years; now he wants to extend the year of service of the Accountant General too. I can bet that the Permanent Secretaries who are due for retirement will also demand an extension of the year of service. The civil service is already bastardised.”

• Your Action Demoralising Upcoming Officers – Workers Union

In a letter addressed to the Governor, a new labour group in the state, Osun State Workers Union, asked Adeleke to shelve the planned extension of the Accountant General’s tenure, saying such a move will be demoralising to upcoming officers. 

The union, in the letter dated February 28, 2024, charged the Governor to respect the Public service rules and fulfil his promise of righting the wrongs of previous administrations. 

A copy of the letter which was made available to OSUN DEFENDER yesterday reads: “Sir, you will recall that we came to Imole House in the early days of your administration for briefing in which everybody that matters in your present cabinet was present. 

“You vowed to right the wrongs of the previous administration among things which included an extension of service for retired officers. 

“However, Your honour, without recourse to Public Service Rules Of Osun State Section 020810 which states that the compulsory retirement age for all grades shall be 60 years or 35 years of pensionable service whichever is earlier.

“No officer shall be allowed to remain in Service after attaining the retirement age of 60 years or 35 years of pensionable service whichever is earlier, you approved the extension of service of the Head of Service via Approved Letter from Office of Chief of Staff duly signed by your Chief of Staff, Alhaji Kazeem Akinleye dated 4th December, 2023. This gesture is not only undermining the Civil Service Ethics but demoralizing upcoming officers. 

“The workers union in the public service vehemently opposed this but your excellency gave Autocratic approval against the Public Service Rules of Osun State and Nigeria Constitution.

“As loyal and highly dedicated officers of Osun State Civil Service, it is to our notice that similar illegality is being planned for the outgoing State Accountant-General, in the person of Mr Rasheed Olalere. 

“Your excellency, it will be an effrontery to the serious and highly dedicated cadre of professional accountants to extend the tenure of Accountant-General for one day when everybody in the Service is aware that his tenure and years of Service will be terminated by 14th of March, 2024. 

“Your excellency, it will be a great honour and highly distinguished to let Mr. Rasheed Olalere Alabi go and rest with his family and be a good ambassador to his community after his service year to our dear state.”

• Your Policy Anti Civil Servants – APC Chides Adeleke

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has also accused Adeleke of policies that are against the civil servants in the state.

APC was reacting to the controversial extension of the statutory tenure of the Accountant General which it claimed is contrary to the service rules.

The APC Chairman, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, stated that it was worrisome that Adeleke has been running his administration by impulse rather than by the provisions of the law.

Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, explained that the aspiration of any civil servant is to get to the pinnacle of his career which the retention of the state Accountant-General and the Head of Service by Adeleke has bungled.

“Are Governor Adeleke and his handlers saying that there are no other qualified officers who could replace the state Accountant-General upon his retirement?”, Lawal queried.

The statement made available to OSUN DEFENDER yesterday reads in part: “If not that fraudulent activities in the government are the inseparable binding factors between Governor Adeleke and the embattled Accountant-General, there is no justifiable reason under the sun why Alabi should not abide by the PSR and bow out of service honourably when he will attain the mandatory retirement age on March 14, 2024.

“Does it not occur to Governor Adeleke that if the top is blocked, no movement of any kind can happen to the bottom and the middle? 

“Those who are thinking for this government, a government that has arrested the development of the state and brought it back by two decades, should cover their faces in shame as history, will not be kind to them.

“It would be recalled that in a similar manner recently, Governor Adeleke, against the complaints from the civil servants’ quarters and discerning minds in the society, granted an indefinite elongation of service to the state Head of Service, Mr Leye Aina, even though the HoS had attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 years. He was given a three-year extension”.

Lawal wondered why Adeleke has decided to jettison the PSR 020908 which stipulates the mandatory retirement age of civil servants at attainment of 60 years of age or 35 years in the service as the case may be with the exemption of judicial officers and members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, among others.