For New Nigeria Vote Mallam Naseer E-rura''I 2023

DA DUMI-DUMI: Yanzu haka hankalin yan kungiyar kwadago ta NLC ya tashi bayan da aka maido wuta a garin Kaduna.

Majiya mai tushe ta shaidawa Manuniya cewa kwatam sai aka ga an maido wutar lantarki inda nan da nan yan NLC din s**a yi cincirundo s**a nufi hedikwatar bayar da wutar dake Mando a wannan daren domin yin bore akai. Wani ma'aikacin wutar lantarki ya shaidawa Manuniya cewa daga sama (Abuja) aka kira kamfanin bayar da wutar lantarkin (TCN) aka umurcesu da su dawo da wutar ba tare da sanar da kungiyar kwadago ta NLC din ba lamarin da ya harzuka su.

Sai dai yace mai yiwuwa su kara dauke wutar idan s**a ga abun zai jawo masu barna "domin yanzu haka muna kan kunna KV lines din ne amma kuma ga yan kungiyar kwadago nan sun fara taruwa suna hayaniya suna kalubalantar wa yace a kunna wutar" inji maikacin wutar

Surrender to criminals is not an option- KDSG

Amidst the violence unleashed by criminal elements on the people of Kaduna State, some commentators have responded by blaming KDSG for asserting that the duty of the state is to uphold the law and not to reward hoodlums for violating the lives, property and liberties of citizens.

Those pushing that kind of narrative are sharing a video clip of a 2014 interview in which Malam Nasir El-Rufai called on the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to use all options, including negotiation, to rescue the Chibok girls. The years since 2014 may have led some people to forget the denial and doubt that defined the FG’s response to the Chibok abductions, especially the initial refusal to acknowledge that it happened. That was the context under which civic pressures were brought on the government.

Nigeria’s journey since the 2014 Chibok tragedy has proven that the solution to violent crimes, including terrorism and banditry, is a robust response from the state and its coercive agencies. The quantum of money paid as ransom following many negotiations with bandits have not stopped kidnappings, reduced their frequency or deterred the criminals.

The experience of many states in the Northwest of Nigeria since 2015 has included cattle rustling, kidnappings, killings and the devastation of communities by criminals. Several states sought to negotiate their way out of the problems by talking to bandits, paying them money or offering them amnesty. This has not worked and has only encouraged the criminals to press ahead for a surrender of the public treasury to them. That is clearly not in the public interest.

Mass abduction was like a novelty in 2014. But the facts have changed since then. Negotiations and ransoms have been undertaken, but these have not stopped the criminals. It has only encouraged them. It is only prudent to review one’s position when the facts change, and the suggestion made by a citizen years ago cannot be taken as the immutable answer to a serious problem which has evolved since 2014, no matter the viral replays of the said video clip.

The Kaduna State Government has been consistently transparent about its security challenges. It has supported and continues to resource the security agencies in the state. We are engaging the Federal Government to have security responses that move away from reactive response of repelling bandits towards a comprehensive, proactive offensive that takes the battle to the criminals and uproots them. As a sub-national, with no direct control of any of the security agencies, we cannot make this task more difficult by giving criminals the resources to acquire more arms.

KDSG regrets the recent kidnaps and killings of students from tertiary institutions in our state, and we sympathize with their families with whom we share the aim of the safe return of all the students. We mourn the dead students and we offer our condolences to the family and friends of the deceased. The ruthless and heartless resort of the kidnappers to murdering these young persons is part of their effort to further their blackmail and compel us to abandon our ‘no-ransom, no-negotiation’ policy. Are people bothering with the consequences of state surrender to hoodlums, or is the continued politicization of security challenges not going to make all of us ultimately victims of the insurgents?

The fact that criminals seek to hold us by the jugular does not mean we should surrender and create an incentive for more crime. In today’s Nigeria, it has become fashionable to treat the unlawful demands of bandits as worthy of consideration and to lampoon people who insist that outlaws should be crushed and not mollycoddled or availed the resources they can use to unleash further outrages.

KADUNA UPDATE: Text of Kaduna State Government press conference addressed by the Commissioner of Local Government and the Head of Service, 15th May 2021

Gentlemen of the Press,

1. On behalf of the Kaduna State Government, we wish to issue the following statement.

2. In September 2019, the Kaduna State Government became the first government at any level in Nigeria to pay the new minimum wage, along with consequential adjustments and it has continued to faithfully respect this obligation. It followed up by swiftly raising the minimum pension to N30,000 monthly for retirees on the old defined benefits scheme. The 23 local government councils in the state also complied and began paying the new wages. Amidst all the revenue challenges we have encountered over the last six years, the Kaduna State Government has always prioritised its ability to deliver capital projects and pay its personnel costs, especially salaries.

3. Kaduna is also one of the states that is most faithful in implementing the Contributory Pension Scheme, effective from 1 January 2017. It has courageously attempted to settle the N14bn it inherited as arrears of death benefit and gratuity from 2010, commencing payments with those who had exited service the longest. Since 2015, the Kaduna State Government has paid over N13bn in death benefits and gratuity.

4. As part of its commitment to the public service as the vehicle for the delivery of services and public goods to citizens, this government initiated the Public Service Reform and Revitalisation Programme in 2016. Its purpose is to modernise the service and make it more efficient and ICT-savvy. Apart from teachers and health workers, this government continues to also recruit required professionals for its agencies. It creates new jobs as it exits personnel from cadres that have been rendered obsolete. It is investing in training and has devoted 2% of FAAC receipts to fund training as a rigorous investment in building and boosting the capacity of its personnel.

5. As sitting tenants, Kaduna State civil servants bought most of the non-essential residential houses the government sold in 2017 and the government supported their ability to pay for these houses by arranging single-digit interest mortgages for them.

6. Therefore, this government has demonstrated in action its commitment to the welfare of its workers. But it insists that this is sustainable only in the context of the general welfare of residents of the state that the government itself is mandated to serve. Thus, it is not sustainable to persist in spending 84% to 96% of its FAAC receipts on salaries and personnel costs as has been the experience of the state since October 2020. This government was not elected to devote most public funds to paying government workers and treat that as its defining governance mission, to the detriment of developing the state and its people.

7. In response to the fiscal headwinds caused by declining FAAC receipts and huge outlays on personnel costs, the government announced in April 2021 that it will rightsize the public service and reduce the number of political appointees and civil servants. The necessary verification of credentials for full implementation of this painful but necessary decision is still being done. It has not determined the total number of officers that might be affected by the decision. Neither has it stopped paying the minimum wage, despite the prompting of the denizens of sentiment who have urged it to suspend payment and thereby violate the national Minimum Wage Act. The Kaduna State Government prefers to take lawful and rational steps that are within its powers to rightsize its personnel and thereby reduce its wage bill.

8. However, since making its intentions known in this regard, the Kaduna State Government has been subjected to a veritable campaign of lies and misrepresentation. Such is the absence of rigour that the NLC itself has cited in its correspondence the contents of a forged memo that first made its nasty appearance in 2019, alleging the casual engagement of workers on Grades 01-06, the imposition of maximum staff strength of 50 on each local government and the compulsory retirements of officers that are above 50.

9. The NLC’s wanton fictions have been echoed by some other trade unionists who have variously and falsely claimed that the rightsizing exercise affects 4,000 or 20,000 or even 60,000 workers. This is not true, and neither is their claim that the Kaduna State Government has stopped paying the minimum wage. It bears noting that given the patchy level of compliance with the new minimum wage across the country, it is the state government that blazed the trail in paying it and has continued paying it at both state and local government level that some trade unionists are consistently traducing. Perhaps something other than worker interest is at play! We already know from the events of 2017 that some trade unionists privilege their ego and narrow interests above public welfare.

10. Such trade unionists have used fictions and misrepresentations to build up a campaign of hysteria. The Kaduna State Government has been made aware of plans by some trade unionists, led by Ayuba Wabba, to reprise the mayhem they visited on Kaduna during their rampage of 8 November 2017. That day, in one of the most shameful displays of irresponsibility, they thrashed the premises of the Kaduna State House of Assembly as part of their futile attempt to force the government to retain 21,780 teachers who did not pass a Primary 4 competency test. The State Government sacked the failed teachers and swiftly recruited 25,000 teachers to replace them and to promote the right of the children of the poor to decent education.

11. Following that shameful 2017 episode, there is a subsisting warrant for the arrest of Wabba for the vandalization of government facilities, in violation of the Miscellaneous Offences Act and other laws of the land.

12. As is appropriate, the security agencies have been notified of the plans of some trade unionists to recruit hoodlums, including from other states, to create a destructive spectacle and further their self-serving narrative about public service jobs and insecurity.

13. The Kaduna State Government has been assured by some trade unions that they will not be part of the planned sabotage of social and economic life. We acknowledge and appreciate these assurances.

14. The Kaduna State Government wishes to clarify that it will not be blackmailed by the criminal plans to attack and shut down power transmission stations, hospitals, government offices and infrastructure such as waterworks and streetlights. We note the brazen threat to the operations of private companies, their workers and facilities and the indifference to the rights and interests of their customers.

15. Kaduna State Government’s obvious investments in schools, hospitals, roads and other infrastructure represent the rebuke to specious arguments that paying salaries will suffice as evidence of governance. Kaduna State pays salaries to its workers, but it also invests to develop the state, as every fair-minded person can see. But when its revenues drop, it will do what rational people do by reducing its expenses. Therefore, the state government calls on residents of the state to resist the apostles of violence and do their utmost to protect public facilities.

16. On 20 December 2020, the Kaduna State Government asked workers below Grade Level 14 to stay at home, effective 21 December 2020 as part of Covid-19 prevention efforts and they have not been recalled to their offices since then. However, they continue to get paid. Along with officers from Grade Level 14 upwards, those workers that have been declared as essential by their commissioners and agency heads are expected at their duty posts as usual.

17. The Trade Union Act is clear in prohibiting strike action by workers that are engaged in the provision of essential services. The law also forbids subjecting “any other person to any kind of constraint or restriction of his personal freedom in the course of persuasion” for strike action.

18. The planned strike action and shutdown are futile gestures, just like Ayuba Wabba’s bluster and histrionics in 2017. KDSG has notified the security agencies who would take steps to thwart the violent intent of the organisers. Apart from the restrictions imposed by Covid-19 protocols, a ban on public processions subsists in this state. This was imposed precisely because of the violence that has frequently broken out from such processions even when they began with innocent intent.

19. For its part, KDSG will protect its facilities and the right of its staff to access and work in their offices. It is unlawful for anyone to try to deny them access or exit. Government offices are not the property of any trade unionist and none of them should entertain thoughts of locking up or vandalizing any facility.

20. As in 2017, the Kaduna State Government will not subject its policy to the veto of a mob. This government did not campaign on a platform of tired populism and it was not elected to practice timidity as public policy. It is not about to create the mistaken impression that it has much fiscal wiggle room as a subnational or that it is the supreme goal of government to pay 100,000 people while ignoring the larger public welfare of 10m citizens. The trade union laws of this country are not a cover for irresponsibility, and therefore everyone concerned should be rightly guided.

KDSG condemns unlawful actions by unionists, urges residents to stay calm

The Kaduna State Government has said that the conditions that compelled its decision to rightsize have not been altered by the NLC’s campaign of economic and social sabotage. KDSG remains firmly committed to using all the resources it can generate to serve the interests of the majority of its citizens, putting the many ahead of the few. The unlawful actions and reckless statements that define the NLC’s assault on the rights of the people of Kaduna State, are a needless exercise in futility.

Desperate actions undertaken by the NLC today include unlawful trespass on government facilities, and attempts to prevent officers from signing attendance registers.

Despite these actions, the state government has guaranteed access to the State Secretariat and other government offices. KDSG intends to continue running its operations in the service to the people, despite the futile efforts of the NLC to impede it. The State Executive Council also held its regular weekly meeting to discuss policy matters germane to the progress of the state and the welfare of its people.

In addition to shutting down electricity, the NLC has also shut healthcare access for several of our citizens. They have closed several hospitals and chased away the patients. General hospitals in Kawo, Tudun-Wada, Kafanchan, Giwa, Rigasa, Kakuri and Sabon Tasha were illegally locked. They also shut rural hospitals and primary health centres in Kwoi, Turunku and other locations across the state. Preventing patients from receiving treatment in public health facilities certainly does not qualify as a pro-people action.

The State Government is documenting all these violations of the Miscellaneous Offences Act and the Trade Union Act. The government shares the pain of the people of Kaduna State amidst the avalanche of unlawful conduct by the NLC and appeals to all residents to remain calm and vigilant. The resort to coercion and the imposition of restraints on the personal freedom and comfort of citizens confirm that this is a campaign of sabotage, not an industrial action.

KDSG welcomes the visit by the leaders of the Trade Union Congress who met with our Head of Service, Bariatu Y. Mohammed, this morning. Hajiya Bariatu commended the constructive attitude of the TUC delegation led by Barrister Musa Lawal, its Secretary-General. The Head of Service also disclosed that all officers from GL 14 upwards are expected at their duty posts as usual.

Signed

National President El-rufa'I for President 2023

THANK YOU BAYO. IT IS KDSG NOT EL-RUFAI: “Governor Nasir El-Rufai's courage” - By Bayo Onanuga - May 18, 2021

Governor Nasir El-Rufai is fighting a new war that both the Federal and other 35 States and the FCT are shying away to confront, choosing instead to cower in fear of the blackmail of labour.

How much of state resources should be spent on governance, in paying salaries, pensions and other emoluments of civil servants and political appointees? 40%, 60%, 80%, 90% or even all?

Aregbesola confronted this question as governor of Osun, leading to his innovative formula of paying a percentage of workers emoluments as he allocated resources into building roads, schools and other infrastructure. His government was badly cash strapped and he could not even do anything for the people of Ilesha, his hometown, who rewarded him by snubbing his party in the 2018 governorship election.

Despite the efforts by President Buhari to spread state debts over 30 years, giving them a huge financial relief, the states are back with the same problem, unable to pay salaries.

Kwara has refused to pay the minimum wage of N30,000. Gombe also announced a default. Kano recently announced wage cuts. Many states are groaning as the workers demand full payment for their services.

My state of Ogun has a huge bill of N50 billion in pension arrears. I laughed when Gov. Abiodun said he would reduce the bill by N2billion every year, which means in eight years, he would have paid just N16billion, with the bill growing bigger and bigger every year.

No one begrudges workers for demanding full payment for working for government, some spending 35 years in service. They retire, awaiting retirement benefits or the contributory pension, many states are not paying. Their plight is pitiable and we have seen pathetic scenes of retirees dying on the queue, while waiting for payment.

Government must think out a solution. El-Rufai has taken a route that Federal and States avoid, by deciding to rightsize the civil service. The pandemic has been an eye-opener, when workers were ordered to stay at home. It became clear that government does not need the thousands of people on its payroll.

If everyone had taken a rational decision by asking the redundant workers to go, this would have freed money to enable govt provide roads, hospitals, schools and others.

Resources are shrinking for these hugely critical capital heads, a reason, our roads and schools are failing and hospitals have become worse than consulting centres.

The way out is what El-Rufai is saying in Kaduna to striking workers.

"KDSG will not submit its treasury to the entitled minority. We will reform and rightsize our public service to meet the needs and resources of the Kaduna State even if the NLC strikes ad infinitum.

"The government remains committed to using all the resources it can generate to serve the interests of the majority of its citizens, providing social services beyond paying salaries, always putting the interests of the many ahead of the few'.

El-Rufai should not be left to confront this issue alone. Federal, states need an urgent summit on how to strike a balance between paying civil servants and allocating resources to the needs of the majority.

Back to my question: how much percentage of a state resources should go into salaries?

I will say that anything above 30 percent should send the alarms ringing, as it will cause the acute social and economic problems we have today, when government has become a total failure in catering for the masses.

For now Governor El-Rufai wins my trophy for courage.