OPEN LETTER TO KADUNA STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY

Iwrite to draw the attention of Alhaji Aminu Shagali, Speaker, Kaduna State House of Assembly, to the ongoing massive sacking of civil servants by the Executive Governor of Kaduna state, Malam Nasir El-Rufai. Mr Speaker sir, you are aware in the last two years of this administration, the state civil servants have been subjected to all manner of hardship through repeated screening carried out by the state government.

While nobody can deny the fact that considerable success had been recorded in the exercise through the flushing out of ghosts workers, the ongoing sacking of workers in the state came to us as rude shock. Governor El-Rufai has admitted during a town hall meeting that the state government has been able to save N500 million monthly through the screening, money that would have gone to ghosts workers. At the same forum, the governor told the audience that the state’s internally generated revenue has improved dramatically. This is to attest the state financial viability.

The recent termination and compulsory retirement of 4,042 local government staff for what the state governor called “redundant workers” is untimely. It has come at a wrong time, considering that the economy is in bad shape, despite reports that we are out of recession. Sir, if you can recall, the governor has never promised to sack any worker. With this dramatic turn of event, those who unanimously voted the governor in 2015 general election have started losing confidence in him. The governor must have weighed his policy before he went ahead to implement it. Sir, the members of the state house of assembly are representative of the people of the state and need to act fast to tame the excesses of the governor.

The implications of the massive sacking in the state are many and can be summarised as follows: One, the insecurity pervading the state may likely shoot up due to thousands of sacked workers who would flood the already saturated labour market. Two, many sacked civil servant cannot be able to feed their families because they are being thrown out from work. There are no ready alternatives. Three, there may be frustration and premature deaths among the workers due to health- related problems.

Looking at the above implications, the state house of assembly should hurriedly come to the aid of the affected workers who are the victims of injustice. The members of staff are not redundant as the governor wants us to believe. They want to work but the system is very defective. The governor should have channelled his energy and time to reform the local governments, release adequate funds to them to carry out development projects instead of driving out thousands of workers from their jobs in the name of reform.