RETRENCHMENT OF FOUR THOUSAND WORKERS IN KADUNA, WICKED, RUTHLESS

Abdulmumin Giwa

Even as the Kaduna state government has been judged by the general public not to value any advises or suggestions from other than what it has decided it is still pertinent to comment on its ruthlessness and recklessness.

With a state executive that has no regard for other people's culture or religion or even social status, there is a complete silence in the state as though there is no political opposition at all. Everyone is afraid of his property being demolished by 'the bulldozer' and chooses to remain unconcerned about the anti people policies of the government.

Hence, feeling above everybody, the governor executes whatever policy he desires no matter how unpopular.

More so, those who can't be silenced from speaking against the misdoings of the government are intimidated and oppressed by violating their fundamental human rights to life. A good example here is that Elrufai and the Nigerian government know very well that Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky will not keep silent and watch them destroy Nigeria, he will speak up in favor of the oppressed, something they don't want. That is why they attack him and kill his followers and even bury them in mass graves after burning down and demolishing his house while he is illegally jailed. His case is now with the #ICC and many of the government big shots, including the Kaduna governor are indicted.

In addition to that, just of recent, the US government declared Sheikh Zakzaky a political prisoner and not a terrorist as falsely claimed by Elrufai and the Nigerian regime.

More so, we have clearly seen how the Nigerian regime embarrassed and insulted a globally respected man of God, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kuka of Sokoto recently for simply saying the truth about the misdoing of the Buhari regime and how it is leading Nigeria to doom thereby displaying how intolerant they can be.

Just of recent, the Kaduna state governor Nasiru Elrufai as usual, arrogantly told newsmen that he was not elected to pay salaries. Further explaining, he gave some statistics saying 90% of the monthly allocation to the state is spent on payment of salaries for which only 100,000 civil servants out of the 9 million population benefit.

This could easily buy off the thinking of an ordinary man but not a reasonable person. This is because even when those 100,000 people that work with the civil service get their salaries they help circulate the same money back to the people in the state. They spend them on groceries, domestic expenditure and others such that even the market woman benefits from the money.

More so, it increases the volume of money in circulation in the public thereby reducing insecurity tendencies, extreme poverty and insecurity tendencies as well.

On the other hand, if such monies go back only to projects awarded to friends and relatives in the name of big companies, it ends up in fat foreign accounts and personal investments. The people of the state on the other hand are left in a state of institutional poverty. The Federal Allocation the state government is referring to is not the only source of income for the state. The state government had in recent times expressed its achievements as concerns the Internally Generated Revenue. Where the state Governor boasted of earning enough to run the state even without the federal allocation.

Retrenching about four thousand workers in the state is therefore a very wicked and heartless decision that is taken by the government only as a means of raising money that might end up in the pockets of ambitious politicians leaving the poor masses in a fabricated hell.

The number of workers in Kaduna, in fact needs to be increased and not reduced because not even in states with lower IGR than Kaduna, like Kano, where there are a lot of infrastructural projects going on, are workers being dismissed recklessly like this.

In 2019 and in 2020 and even before, the annual Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of Kaduna state have all been more than those of Kano. But in the last six years, more infrastructural projects have been executed in Kano, including, flyovers under passes, specialist hospitals and housing than in Kaduna.

More so, Kano has much bigger number of civil servants with the minimum salary being N30,600:00 but it had no cause to retrench the state workers. What is even more is that the population of Kano is more than twice that of Kaduna state. Kano is having a population of 20 million people while Kaduna has 9 million.

Definitely the issue of Kaduna state workers retrenchment is but only an act of wickedness and heartlessness, it is indeed against the people and certainly against God.

On the other hand, the monies being accumulated by the state government that are meant for the Local Government Councils is yet another issue. Allocations meant for the local governments hardly reaches them. Such monies are meant to take development to the door steps of rural communities in order to avoid among various others, rural - urban migration. These funds are also in the pocket of the state government since the local governments are yet to be seen as autonomous by the states. Hence, shortage of funds is not a genuine reason why workers should be retrenched.

In rural communities where there is no light, no water, no good education and no basic health delivery service, definitely people will be migrating to the urban communities to seek better opportunities. This affects economy, and encourages insecurity as well.

Reducing the size of the Local Government work force to only 50 people in Kaduna state, with only 23 LGs, is the worse idea ever. It is only a way of killing rural development for personal greed. This is an era where Nigerians are calling for autonomy of the LGs to encourage developmental progress in rural areas.

Definitely the idea of dismissing workers can never be supported or implemented by any right thinking person, not in this age where Nigeria is described as the poverty capital of the world and the North of Nigeria as the poverty capital of Nigeria.

What do you expect from rulers that sympathize & sponsor terrorists? They are just after themselves only. What happens to the poor people is not their business!