There is tension in the Kaduna state civil service as the state governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, announced plan Monday to downsize the state’s workforce.
The governor, who said he was not elected to just pay salaries, told the workers they constituted an infinitesimal part of the entire population of the state.
He also said the running of government activities during the COVID-19 pandemic had clearly shown fewer people were needed to work in the civil service.
The decision is coming few days after about 4,000 workers in the 23 local government councils in the state, were handed their sack letters.
Fresh sack plan
Unfolding a fresh plan to also sack workers in the employ of state government, the governor said what the state government received “from FAAC since the middle of 2020, like most other sub-nationals, can barely pay salaries and overheads.”
He said this in a statement by his media aide, Mr Muyiwa Adekeye in Kaduna.
Adekeye said: “In November 2020, KDSG had only N162.9m left after paying salaries. That month, Kaduna State got N4.83bn from FAAC and paid N4.66bn as wages.
“In the last six months, personnel costs have accounted for between 84.97% and 96.63% of FAAC transfers received by the Kaduna State Government. In March 2021, Kaduna State had only N321m left after settling personnel costs.
“That month, the state got N4.819bn from FAAC and paid out N4.498bn, representing 93% of the money received.
“This does not include standing orders for overheads, funding security operations, running costs of schools and hospitals, and other overhead costs that the state has to bear for the machinery of government to run, for which the state government taps into IGR earnings.”
He said the government “was elected to develop the state, not just to pay the salaries of public servants. It was elected to promote equality of opportunity, to build and run schools and hospitals, upgrade infrastructure and make the state more secure and attractive to the private sector for jobs and investments.”
Adekeye also recalled that “in September 2019, Kaduna State Government became the first government in the country to pay the new minimum wage and consequential adjustments. The state government followed this up by increasing the minimum pension of persons on the defined benefits scheme to N30, 000 monthly.
“This step to advance the welfare of workers significantly increased the wage burden of the state government and immediately sapped up the funds of many local governments.
“While the Kaduna State Government believes that public sector wages overall are still relatively low, their current levels are obviously limited by the resources available to the government.”
“What each public servant earns might be puny in comparison to private-sector wages, but the total wage bill consumes much of the revenues of the state.”
Adekeye also said the “desire to pay more is a sentiment that must bow to the limits prescribed by the ability to pay. Therefore, the state government has no choice but to shed some weight and reduce the size of the public service. It is a painful but necessary step to take, for the sake of the majority of the people of this state.”
He justified the job cut “as a painful but necessary step to take, for the sake of the majority of the people of this state.”
El-Rufai said: “The public service of the state with less than 100,000 employees (and their families) cannot be consuming more than 90% of government resources, with little left to positively impact the lives of the more than nine million that are not political appointees or civil servants. It is gross injustice for such a micro-minority to consume the majority of the resources of the State.”
He also said, considering the approach and measures adopted by government at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, these “have shown clearly that the public service requires much fewer persons than it currently employs.
“The public service is an important institution, and it should therefore maintain only an optimum size. Faced with a difficult situation, the Kaduna State Government is persuaded that it cannot refuse to act or act in ways that only conduce to populist sentiment, without solving the fundamental problem.”
While saying political appointees won’t be spared in the rationalisation process, Adekeye said “its purpose is to save funds and ensure that a strong and efficient public service exists to use those resources to implement progressive programmes and projects for the people, and thereby develop the state.”
Retrenchment frightening –PDP chieftain
But a party chieftain and governorship candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 governorship in the state, Alhaji Isa Ashiru has described the decision as frightening.
He said since assuming office in 2019, thousands of civil servants in the state and the 23 local governments had lost their jobs.
Ashiru said the total number of those denied means of livelihood is frightening when added to the number of the victims of the retrenchment policy as well as those whose businesses were destroyed by the government’s action.
He said: “As it is now, the victims of the actions of the State Government in both the formal and the informal sectors, a lot of whom are experienced civil servants, skilled artisans and entrepreneurs have already turned into scavengers.
“It is particularly shocking that rather than the APC-led Kaduna State Government to utilize the well-established Civil Service Sector in the State for the delivery of essential services to the people, it has unfortunately chosen to adopt an approach that continuously cripples it.
“This particular attitude which has now rendered Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as Local Governments weak and ineffective is a clear indication of the low understanding and appreciation of the critical contribution of this vital sector to the growth and development of the State.”
We‘re watching – NLC
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has assured its members that steps were being taken to persuade the state government to reverse itself on the planned sack of the civil servants in the state.
Kaduan state chairmen of the congress, Comrade Ayuba Magaji Suleiman disclosed this Monday in a statement in Kaduna.
He said the NLC president, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, had written the governor on the issue and that workers were watching and waiting to have the feedback from the NLC headquarters in Abuja.
Suleiman said: “We are holding meeting with stakeholders tomorrow (Tuesday) where we intend to look at the situation and decide on what to do. There would be a prayer session on Wednesday on the sack of workers and insecurity in the state.
“We have formed a strategic planning committee to guide our actions. We have informed the national Secretariat, I have spoken with the national president and he had equally written a letter to Governor Nasir El-Rufai. After the letter the National Executive Committee (NEC) would meet and decide on what next to do.
“So, we are expecting the direction from the national secretariat to enable us know what our next line of action will be.
“Kaduna state government has been underestimating the power of workers in the state. Governor Nasir el-Rufai did similar thing in 2017, when he sacked over 21,000 workers despite our appeals, he refused to revert the decision.
“He has sacked thousands of local government workers before we held our emergency SEC meeting last week Monday and appealed to him but he is going ahead to make the threat to sack thousands of state government workers real. When our national secretariat decides, we will take necessary action.”
