Governor El-Rufai, please don’t cultivate hardship

Let me begin with this analogy: A polygamist was retrenched from in the civil service.
Prior to his disengagement, he has two children that got admission in the university, waiting registration.
He has another two daughters who were getting married, three months before his unexpected retirement! And in line with the tradition of their ethnic extraction, as a father, he is responsible to provide all the required materials towards the marriage and also all the financial provision for the marriage, are on his neck! Sadly, the wedding of his children was postponed indefinitely due to his inability to meet the requirement for the marriage.
Because government were yet to pay his retirement Benefit, the other two children lost their admission.
Moreover, he has another four children in primary and secondary schools, and another three children under breastfeeding! Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any alternative source of living.
After a year, he had not received a kobo as his retirement benefit.
How this man is expected to survive? Indeed, it’s worrisome that Governor Nasir el-Rufai is bent on inflicting hardship on Kaduna’s retrenched workers.
Since inception of his government el-Rufai disengaged some directors and permanent secretaries from the state civil service.
Recently, he also disengaged thousands of civil servants in the state, including teachers.
Ironically, even the permanent secretaries and the directors who were disengaged, barely a year on his assumption in office, are yet to receive their benefits.
The poor civil servants and the teachers, those who were also recently disengaged are yet to see anything in form of their benefit! And surprisingly, the inscription raised by the el-Rufai’s government is, “Government of the masses”! How are they expecting these poor retrenched civil servants to survive? It is apparent that these workers were retrenched or disengaged, not dismissal.
Therefore, they are eligible to receive their benefit immediately, since it was the government that made the exercise to affect.
In truth, I have seen many children of the affected retrenched workers roaming the street without going to school, because they cannot afford school fees.
Some of the retrenched workers said if they had received their benefits, they will engage in agriculture or other business.
But alas, they are hampered due to the non-payment of their benefits by the government.
I appeal to Malam el-Rufai to kindly sympathize with these poor retrenched workers and immediately pay them their retirement benefit so that they can continue to cater for their families.
Eric Hoffer once said, “Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul.
Where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless”.
Jabir T.
Usman, Kaduna South, Kaduna [email protected]

Leave a Reply