Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will on Friday lead Minster of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi, and others to the 30th memorial lecture of late Joseph E. Imoukhuede.
Osinbajo will be special guest at the occasion, Obaseki will be the chief host, to be supported by Fashola, while Fayemi will chair the panel of discussants.
Late Joseph Imuokhuede was a retired permanent secretary in the defunct Mid West Region and died in 1989 after retiring from the service.
Afolabi Imoukhuede, son of the deceased and senior special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Job Creation, disclosed this at press brief on activities lined up for the memorial service.
Tunji Olaopa, a professor, will deliver the inaugural lecture titled “Chief Joseph Enaifoghe Imoukhuede, the quintessential administrator: Revisiting our history of selfless public service.”
He said his late father pioneered the setting up of the civil servant structure for the Mid West Region at its creation in 1963 upon redeployment from the Western Region, wherein he was only the non-Yoruba permanent secretary so appointed by the Premier in 1960 ahead of Nigeria’s independence.
He added that, he was confirmed as the first secretary to the government and head of the civil service of the Mid West Region.
He said on April 25, 2019, the late permanent secretary would have been 98 years and as such the family had chosen to inaugurate annual memorial lecture in his honour.
Earlier, the Secretary to the Edo State government, Osarodion Ogie, said late Imoukhuede’s footprints as an astute administrator were still there for civil servants to continue to lean on in carrying on government’s day-to-day activities in the state.
Ogie, who was represented by the State Head of Service, Issac Ehiozuwa, said late Imuokhuede was the brain behind the success of the administration of late Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia, hence till today that administration remained a reference point.
“We know he was a very excellent and an astute administrator. Because of his performance and track record in the civil service, he was given an award (OBE) by the British administration. The British administration cannot ordinarily give the award, except one merited it,” he said.
