Kaduna Governor El-Rufai Fires 99 Appointees, Gives Reason
- Governor El-Rufai of Kaduna state has disengaged 99 political office holders as he kickstarted his "rightsizing" policy
- The Kaduna state governor also insisted that civil servants will be affected by the policy despite the kicks from the labour union
- El-Rufai explained that the move is important due to the dwindling revenue that is accruing to the northwestern state from the federation account
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Kaduna state - Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state disclosed on Friday, June 18, that he has sacked 99 political appointees.
The governor made the disclosure at a media chat with some journalists, explaining that the disengaged political appointees constitute 30 per cent of the political officeholders, Daily Trust reported.
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Governor El-Rufai added that he started implementing its "rightsizing policy" by disengaging 99 political appointees but is yet to sack any state civil servant.
He explained that only agencies connected to the local government system have disengaged staff and these include the 23 local government councils, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and the Primary Health Care Board, The Punch also reported.
The Kaduna rightsizing policy
The Kaduna rightsizing policy is Governor El-Rufai's euphemistic tag for downsizing the state's service as he attempts to increase the state's revenue and ensure a larger percentage of it is used to finance infrastructure.
Despite the resistance from the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the Kaduna governor said the rightsizing of civil servants will still go on as planned because of dwindling revenues that is accruing to the state government from the federation account.
El Rufai explained that the rightsizing commenced with political appointees because their details are clearly known, making it more straightforward to disengage them.
Salaries of civil servants gulped N3.13 billion in a month
Justifying his decision to lay off civil servants, Governor El-Rufai said civil servants were paid N3.13 billion as salaries in March 2021, aside from the costs related to state contributions to pension, accrued rights and others.
He also addressed the insinuations that political appointees are the ones that guzzle most of the state’s resources, noting that the salaries of the political aides only amounted to N259 million in March.
The governor said his government has employed 11,000 more workers in the health sector, Kaduna State University as well as primary and secondary school teachers across the state.
No plan to reverse the N30,000 minimum wage
Governor El-Rufai also said that all states and the federal government are affected by the shortfall of revenue, adding that some states have even reverted to paying the old monthly minimum wage of N18,000.
The governor, however, promised that Kaduna state will not reverse the N30,000 minimum wage that it has started paying.
He also promised that the state will still fund free education from primary 1 to the SS3.
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NLC writes President Buhari, threatens to resume Kaduna strike
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has warned that it may resume its suspended strike in Kaduna following an alleged breach of agreement by the state government.
The NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, gave the warning in a letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, June 4, in Abuja.
The labour leader said the Kaduna government was refusing to honour the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it signed with members of the organised labour.
Source: Legit.ng
