When I stumbled upon the response of the Zamfara State's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity on the NLC-led strike in the state, my reaction oscillated between disgust and derision at his despicable goof.
Have a taste of his words here:
"Governor Abdul’aziz Yari had since directed the labour leaders in the state to come up with an authentic list of workers under the state government payroll without which the state government would not implement their demands."
It's amazing how this comes from a man of his calibre. What's NLC got to do with the list of workers in the state? I am not alone in this bewilderment. In the words of Gazali Shehu Ahmad " #GovernorYari has been verifying (workers) for six years with no result. We know many ghost workers are in the payroll and serving some corrupt cabals.
El-Rufai did verification in one year and he was able to clean the payroll. How could a governor ask NLC to give list of workers? Is it the NLC that employ?"
It is amazing that in spite of the rigorous chains of verification exercises being carried out to ‘’clean’’ the assumed mess in the civil service, the state government is yet to reach any positive conclusion.
This is a feasible reason why we believe that the so-called verifications have just been either delay tactics meant to scuttle the implementation of the required salary scale or a retrenchment strategy or both.
No one has forgotten how for six consecutive years the Zamfara State civil servants have been subjected to series of workers verification exercises.
It all started with the verification and rationalization committee headed by Ahmad Zabarma in 2012 which recommended the termination of more than 4,000 jobs.
Amazingly, the government was quick to approve the recommended retrenchment because it was the set objectives to strategically sack as much workers as possible under the guise of verification.
When many complaints were lodged against the Zabarma's judgement, another committee headed by Attorney General, Barrister Garba Gajam was convened to review Zabarma's recommendations. However, only 1,065 sacked civil servants were restored to their jobs.
Not long thereafter, another verification committee headed by Professor Tukur Adamu was set up to conduct Phase I verification and assessment of primary school teachers in the state.
As expected, the team of professors in the committee did a wonderful job and submitted their recommendations which require government to do a lot of job to overhaul education sector.
Alas! These were not the desired results since the implementation of the recommendations require financial input.
To evade doing the needful, governor Yari decided to keep on dragging issues as the tenure runs out with every second. Again the Professor Tukur-led verification team was tasked to carry out Phase II assessment of secondary schools in the state. In February 2014, Professor Tukur presented the preliminary report to the state government.
The report exposed the stinking rot that has been shackling the progress of education in the state. Unfortunately, the recommendations were also swept under the carpet.
More recently, another verification committee concluded its exercise and disturbed the payroll again with thousands civil servants defaced from it. Bashiru Hassan Maradun was the arrow-head in this display of heartlessness. Many families couldn't eat "tuwon sallah" because of Yari's wrong decision.
Thus, the current industrial action led by the Zamfara State NLC is on the right course as long it maintains dogged sincerity in the pursuit of its demands. We are therefore calling on the NLC leaders to be impervious to any form of compromise.
Everyone is watching in anticipation of your resilience and dedication in these trying times. Your integrity is put to test, one last chance and we pray and hope that success will crown your effort.
We are equally using this medium to call on governor Yari to use this last chance to set a good policy which will benefit the state and open more windows for gainful employment.
Governor Yari should as a matter of justice settle workers' salaries in full scale, pay outstanding annual increments, pay outstanding leave grants, promotions and retired workers gratuity and pensions immediately.
Zamfara Circle is in SOLIDARITY with the NLC. It is NOW or NEVER!
Signed
IBRAHIM BELLO ZAUMA
Vice Chairman , Zamfara Circle
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