Yobe govt’s political miscalculation

In August, Yobe state government under the leadership of Hon. Mai Mala Buni, reduced the salary of its workers from the new national minimum wage system to the old minimum wage template. Later, the government officials held a press conference regarding the matter and concluded that: the depletion is temporary and they already put hand on, to get rid of it soon.


Consequently, we thought that the reduction would not last long, but sadly, the matter vis-à-vis workers’ September salary is still low.
A state with highest rate of poverty in northern Nigeria like Yobe, should not undertake this unprecedented reduction of salary that effects negatively the livelihood of it citizens.

The ruthless depletion of workers’ renumeration by the state government has led to strangulation of the lower-class people in the state.
It’s dreadful as majority of the people are living in abject poverty whereby one cannot afford regular meals for his family in the name of salary depletion.

Recently, after the just concluded APC’s local government party congress, the governor presented a gift of brand new Peugeot 406 brand cars,worth N3 million to each local government party chairman, as a congratulatory gift of assuming office. If you multiply N3 million by 17 ( the number of local government areas in the state) the total amount is about N50 million, so far.

And this is happening in a state where workers’ salaries were reduced by about 35 percent and the registration fee in the state university was increased by 37.2 percent. This is a translation of one Hausa adage that said “Kura da shan duka gardi da kwace kudi”, meaning “Hyena was beaten while the man takes the credit.” Does it mean that as people who are serving the state the chairmen are not the same as the the civil servants!

On other hand, the state government via some of its commissioned officials are disbursing N50,000 tendentiously to the local tomato vendors in Damaturu, the state capital, without extending the same gesture to the local traders of the other 16 local government areas. What are the contributions of the tomato vendors to the state’s economy? Are they paid to boost the state’s GDP or improve the state’s internal revenue generation? Why not inject these resources into the education sector for the good of Yobe’s tomorrow.

Besides, from all indications, the state government is not willing to extend the gesture. The hope to use these folks to retain power in the forthcoming election, which is a political miscalculation.

May Yobe succeed!

Ali Tijjani Hassan,
Potiskum, Yobe state [email protected]