It’s a new dawn for civil servants and the people of Imo State as Governor Hope Uzodinma raised the state’s minimum wage from the nationally approved N70,000 to N104,000 monthly and medical doctors’ entry-level salary to N508,000 monthly.
Whilst the above presents a gratuitous denouement for Imo citizens in active service, the retirees are also not left out, an immediate clearance of N16bn gratuity arrears was also ordered in one of the most novel and deserving gestures ever displayed by a sitting governor.
The optics of this munificent initiative goes beyond a populist posturing in appreciation of loyal electorate that gave him a popular mandate in his last election but must be viewed in a wider context of an urgent national duty to set a pace as the Chairman Of APC Governors’ Forum.