Bauchi spends N4.1bn on monthly salaries – Abubakar

By Najib Sani
Bauchi

Bauchi state governor, Muhammed Abubakar, has disclosed that his administration pays a whooping sum of N4.1 billion monthly from its federal grants as salaries to the 105, 000 workers it inherited from past regime.

Speaking at a public lecture organised by the government to mark this year’s Democracy Day, Abubakar pointed out that the state received N4.9 billion last month from the federation account, “which means more than
80 per cent of the money was spent on payment of civil servants’ salaries”.
He, however, said that his government should be appreciated for embarking on 27 roads projects across the state within the two years of its inception despite the paucity of funds and backlog of unpaid salaries.

The governor listed ongoing road projects being carried out by the state government to include dualisation of township roads, renovation of dilapidated ones as well as construction of new ones in Katagum, Misau and Gamawa local government areas, adding that 19 primary health care centres were also built in some parts of the state within the period under review.

“Can you imagine that Kano state which has 44 local government councils has a workforce of just 95, 000, but Bauchi which has only 20 local governments has over 105, 000 workers on its monthly payroll, amid the present economic recession. So we need to be appreciated for embarking on these important projects within two years despite our financial predicament”, he said.

In his lecture titled: “Engendering Good Governance in Democracy: The imperative for fighting corruption in Nigeria”, the Guest Speaker,
Professor Salisu Shehu, who is also a dean at the Bayero University
Kano, said corruption was the bane of Nigeria’s under development since the transition to democracy in 1999.
He applauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s current fight against corruption and advised the anti-graft agencies not to only probe corrupt public officers, but prosecute them to serve as deterrent to others.

Leave a Reply