Over 9,000 civil servants compulsorily retired by Kaduna state government in December 2017 have appealed to Governor Nasir el-Rufai to pay their pension and entitlements to enable them cater for basic needs and save them from untimely death that some of their colleagues have suffered.
Addressing journalists at the NUJ Kaduna State Council Secretariat, Chairman of the retirees, Malam Alan Audu and Secretary, Malam Ahmed Muazu said they have done everything possible including meeting with various Kaduna state government officials like the Head of service, the secretary to the state government, special advisers to Governor el-Rufai, permanent secretaries, including the running mate to the Governor for the 2019 gubernatorial election but all the promises made to them has been futile.
“It is now one year and some days since when some of us the civil servants of Kaduna state who are more than nine thousand, were compulsory retired by the Kaduna State Government due to a policy initiated by the government to down size, its work force but till today our entitlements have not been paid. It is better to make it clear here that we are not part of the primary school teachers or local government workers. We are from the different ministries and MDAs of the state. We have no problem with policy, our own is when you take such a decision pay us our due right.
The retirees, who said majority of them are directors and deputy directors said, “we have been made to suffer in the hand of the constituted authority that most of us are instrumental to the formation of its structure, as if this is the price we have to pay. We have come to believe that the future is not assured.”
“The retirement letter giving to us says ‘you are according retired from the Kaduna state civil service with immediate effect… all your entitlements in line with your condition of service will be paid to you accordingly’ in view of this we gladly accepted the retirement letters dated 27th December, 2017. Till this day no single kobo is given to any one of us and we are over nine thousand staff. It is necessary to reiterate that the affected officers are officers who have less than two years to retire, who have served for over thirty years and are already getting tired and this treatment is meted to us.
“His Excellency may wish to call all of us in one place to see things for himself, as he always say he has paid everybody. We have been pressed to make this pronouncement as a result of the several pronouncements of His Excellency in the media that he has paid everybody. When he made such pronouncements we became shocked. However, if His Excellency is sure he has paid us through someone then that person is sabotaging his government, we advise that he reprimand that person. None of the more than nine thousand staff is given a kobo.
“As law abiding citizens, we followed the laid down processes prescribe by the law to get our entitlements. We begun from June, 2018 but till date to no avail. First, we met the head of service on many occasions but we ended up with empty promises. Secondly, we saw the secretary to the government in the presence of the head of service, with two of her permanent secretaries and some directors at the instance of Malam Uba Sani and Samuel Aruwan who promised us within the next few days we would be paid. It also came to be empty promises. At one time, we had a meeting with the permanent secretary ministry of finance in the office of the head of service who made similar promise but nothing changed. All these people are alive and one day they will all die and meet the Almighty Allah for judgment.
“Again, in December we met the acting deputy governor who is now the running made of his Excellency, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe who promised to see the head of service, the director pension board and the pension administrators but nothing comes out of that she is alive and one day the will meet the Almighty. We want to inform the general public and request His Excellency or any other person to reach out to any of our pension administrators and find out if any of the over nine thousand officers who have been compulsorily retired from the civil service of Kaduna state is given a dime by the pension administrators as they always say they are waiting for His Excellency. This is our predicament.
“It may interest His Excellency to know that a sizeable number of our colleagues have died, some are paralyzed, many are hypotensive. All these happen at sudden, no notice no leakage and majority were not ready for the retirement and have no dime in their pockets yet the entitlements are not paid. We have begun to lose control of our families because we cannot feed nor clothe them. We cannot pay their school fees just as we are like every other person. We have children in the primary, secondary and tertiary Institutions. WAEC and NECO have started registration of potential candidates and our children are at home due to our inability to pay the charges.
“This complain is a collective one based on mandate from all our members as we have a forum in the three senatorial zones. We cannot write individually to complain as his Excellency asked if anyone has any because it will not work seeing the personalities we met, all we are saying no one single person among the re-structured staff has been paid a dime. We are requesting His Excellency to have the fear of Allah and have mercy on us and pay us our due right as it is not a privilege,” they lamented.
