Against all expectations, Wednesday’s Cross River State Executive Council meeting did not throw up the highly anticipated posting list for the 14 new permanent secretaries appointed into the Cross River State civil service and sworn-in by Gov. Liyel Imoke, on the 13th of January, 2014. The meeting which was presided over by deputy governor, Efiok Cobham, in the absence of Gov. Imoke who was said to be rushing to Abuja to attend to matters of state at the time of the meeting, had the new permanent secretaries in attendance, but did not mention the issue of their postings.
One source told calitown.com that “there is no cause for alarm, at the appointed time the list will be out and Cross Riverians will understand from the posting that more than ever before, this administration is seriously committed to putting round pegs in round holes”. The delay in announcing the postings is however providing a fertile ground for permutations after it emerged recently that a few of the older permanent secretaries had frowned and even protested their re-deployment from ministries thought to be fertile to others considered infertile. It was this protest that birthed the cancellation of the initial posting list circulated by the Office of the Head of Service, CRS.
On condition of anonymity, a source told calitown.com that, “it is unfortunate that permanent secretaries appointed to further the art of governance in the state cannot be assigned postings because a few persons are not comfortable with being moved from here to there. I think that until we begin to understand that the collective interest of the people of this state must be served, over and above the interest of a few individuals, our forward thrust as a people will make no appreciable gains”.