Engr. Mohammed Wada Yahaya is the Nasarawa state Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport. In this interview with MU’AZU ABARI, he speaks on some controversial issues bordering on civil servants/government relationship, the airport project and alleged government’s role in the factionalisation of the state’s NLC, among others.
Apart from the non payment of workers’ salaries, Nasarawa is the only state that pays its workforce in percentage. Why is this so?
Government is about everybody not civil servants alone, and by global standard, for a sustainable development, the ratio of capital expenditures and recurrent expenditures is maximum of 33% for recurrent and 67% for capital.
Today, we are experiencing a situation where over 90% goes to the recurrent, where do you have money for the capital projects? And mind you, whatever is being done on capital projects is benefited by 100%, because even people outside the state will benefit, and when we look at the civil servants and their numbers, they constitute less than 2% of the population. If the civil servants constitute 2%, what is the percentage of working class in the state?
We know civil servants have their own burden and liabilities, but let’s look at them as working class, and if they constitute one or two percent of the working class, what is the total number of working class in the state? So you can see that, it is the capital projects that benefit other people as much as the civil servants too. So, you see how the capital project touches everybody and yet there is little of it.
So, this government is civil servant-friendly. Remember that Nasarawa state is one of the least in revenue allocation from the federal government after Ekiti, and it is the highest paying in salaries after Rivers.
How can you reconcile these? Yet, the government kept to it judiciously in 5 years until when this recessio n started. So, should we abandon everything and concentrate on civil servants? I have told you the ratio 33% to 67%. There is an option because we don’t have the resources. So, you either adjust the size or you adjust the payment to meet up with the ratio. Which one do you go for? Do you retrench people or reduce how much they collect to meet up with the capital for you to work? Salaries have been paid to civil servants for the services they rendered, and they rendered these services using materials and if these materials are not available, how will they render the services?
Most state governors, including Almakura, keep on attributing their inability to settle outstanding workers’ salaries and arrears to inadequate funds. But isn’t the airport project embarked on by the administration too capital intensive?
Nasarawa Airport project is not a misplacement of priority. Since coming on board, he has been trying to draw investors to come to Nasarawa State and invest. That is what informed his decision to construct airport in the state. Some of them do not have time to travel all this long distance to Nasarawa and you can see the investment he attracted from Dangote.
For Olam Farm, this is an outfit that can employ not less than 50,000 people. So, with the construction of the airport now, we will be the closest airport to Abuja and with what happened recently, Nasarawa state would have been the alternative airport to FCT, which by the status as of now, the distance from here to Abuja, in fact, to the Villa is about 170 kilometers. If you take Akwanga road, from here to Keffi is about 110 kilometers, and from Keffi up to Villa is about 60 kilometers. But now with the construction of the airport which is ongoing, the governor has approved that we design a road that links from there to Keffi straight which will reduce your travelling time by about 45 kilometers. So, you will spend 30 or less than 30 minutes from there to Keffi to give you less than 60 kilometers from here to Keffi instead of 110 kilometers. This road construction has already been awarded and commenced in earnest. So far, the clearance is up to 20 kilometers.
But the people are saying no to this project, especially at this recession period when it is difficult paying workers’ salaries. Why is government’s insistence?
Nasarawa airport project is not a luxury but a necessity as far as I am concerned. I have given you an example of Dangote. It took us over 4 years for Dangote to just secure time to come to Nasarawa state. He had to come through Makurdi for us to move to Lafia and go back the same way. With his coming, you can see the quantum of development that he brought to the state, which is meant to last forever.
Investors could hardly travel down to Lafia to come and see our potentials and we want investors to come and the airport is not only for the investors. Look at what happened recently in Abuja during the rehabilitation of the runways. The only alternative airport was Kaduna which is over 200kilomoters from Abuja, and we are having an airport here that is about 100kilometers. Establishing airport comes along with so many other developments, markets will be develop, so also tourism and the environment itself.
People see the recent decision by government to construct culverts and drainages across the 13 local governments as politically-motivated. Some claim it is towards his 2019 senatorial ambition? How true is this and why now?
So be it. If that is what people say, so be it. But it is a known fact that most governors in their second term do not seem to work much but we are working much more as if we had never worked before. This administration is committed to making life easy for the masses. Most of these water structures we have embarked upon, totalling about 180 of them costing over N700 million, are located along the rural roads we have constructed. Most of them link one rural area to another and it is not only in the Southern Senatorial zone where the governor comes from. In fact, the projects are more in other zones where it is not even the governor’s senatorial district. So, the idea behind the projects is to ease the burden of the common man.
The governor’s concern every day is what can be done to provide comfort to the common man.
Nasarawa state is substantially rural and over 70% of its people live in the rural areas most of whom are farmers. These are the roads that link them to the cities and to other rural settlements and these water structures, culverts and drainages are linkages. When it is raining you cannot link up with other communities, and in some places you have to wait for a very long time before you cross. So, the essence is to provide convenience for the common man.
For your information, it is the people, including myself that are begging the governor to contest for senator. Even as I’m talking to you, he has not agreed to contest. This is because the governor has changed the psyche of the common man and the political class in Nasarawa state. People in the past used to see political positions as opportunity to amass wealth, but he has changed our mindsets to empower the common man and develop the area. If we had gotten what the state got during the previous administrations, you can imagine how Nasarawa state will look like today.
What is the level of involvement of the administration in the crisis within the state chapter of NLC?
What I believe is that most of the civil servants know the situation, but some that have been pushed to frustrate the government are misleading them. So, those who feel that this government is trying, why then should you frustrate them for no reason? This latter group believes ‘we know the situation ourselves, why should you join the strike’? I am sure that is what necessitated their division.
But why should the state government identify with one faction against the other?
Yes of course, if there are two, you must align yourself with one and you must align yourself with those you flock together. They said birds of the same feather flock together. Why should you identify with your enemies when you have a friend? This is somebody who identifies with your psyche, goals and vision, and somebody is there trying to frustrate your goals and vision. You carry on with your friends and this is natural.
We know civil servants have their own burden and liabilities, but let’s look at them as working class, and if they constitute one or two percent of the working class, what is the total number of working class in the state?
