Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El-rufai has insisted that his government will not be pressurised by Labour or any other group to suspend the sack of civil servants which her termed as an act of rightsizing the state’s workforce.
The governor disclosed this in a state-wide broadcast on Friday.
According to governor El-rufai, the state cannot continue to use 84% to 96% of its revenues to pay salaries of less than 1% of the population.
The governor who gave himself a pass mark on his handling of workers’ welfare condemned the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) shutting down of the state who he described as criminal and an act of economic sabotage.
“Persons on strike can withdraw from the facilities where they are working, but they are not allowed to stop those facilities from functioning….As your government, we will pursue accountability for the crimes that have been committed and seek remedies for our people.” The governor said.
“We cannot continue to use 84% to 96% of our revenues to pay salaries of less than 1% of the population. The rest of our people, all 99% of them, need better schools, hospitals, water supply, roads, markets and support for agriculture to make a living outside government.”
“We will uphold our oath of office to promote the welfare and progress of 10m citizens and we will not spend all or most government resources on the less than 100,000 persons that are public servants. Everyone can see how our urban renewal programme is changing Kaduna, Zaria and Kafanchan for the better. Even our adversaries admit that our social services have improved, and jobs are being created by the private sector due to a conducive economic environment.”
“Therefore, we will rightsize the public service in the interest of the state. In shrinking the public service, we will reduce the number of political appointees and civil servants. We are verifying personnel records to remove staff without the required qualifications or with fake qualifications. While we exit unqualified and poorly skilled people, we continue to recruit more teachers, health workers and other professionals for our agencies.”
“In 2017, we offered land for farming to the unqualified teachers that were disengaged. Not many took up the offer, but it is still available, along with access to concessionary funding for SMEs….”