Gov el-Rufai And Sacking Of Workers

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BY SIMON REEF MUSA

Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai of Kaduna state on Tuesday set tongues wagging when he declared that he was not elected to pay salaries alone. What the governor said cannot be disputed. However, since government is established primarily for the welfare of citizens, the need to cater for that welfare of citizens is overriding in a country where public jobs are now seen as an extension of public welfare.

Much as we cherish realising the dream of development for all, we must take cognisance of the fact that there is absence of policies that promotes the wellbeing of citizens. Our education has become so shortsighted that graduates complete their studies without being taught basic elements in entrepreneurship. Like in the 1970s when students graduated from school in full expectation of white collar jobs, we are presently faced with the grim realities that government jobs are in short supply.

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In the present piercing hardship that makes it impossible for private entrepreneurship to thrive, government has become the only sure means of employment. The advent of the COVID-19 has crumbled most private firms. Even in the organised private sector, most employees have had to put up with less pay in order to make employers shoulder the burden of wage bill.

Government in Nigeria has become the only source of employment due to the underdevelopment of the private sector. It is far profitable to import finished products from developed economies than risk the high cost of local production at prohibitive charge. Some few years back, a Chinese firm had tried to revive one of the textile companies in Kaduna that had gone moribund. After some few days, according to a source, the Chinese discovered that it was far cheaper to import than engage in the production of textile materials. The cost of providing power alone proved enough disincentive.

The inability to revive the manufacturing sector has been a major reason for the unemployment crisis bedeviling our country. Arising from the fact that previous and present governments have not demonstrated an abiding faith in creating a vibrant private sector to provide jobs for our teeming youths, it is obvious that the clock is ticking for an unprecedented crisis that may force the nation to its knees.

Nigeria is only a consumer nation that is walking a tightrope of existence. Within the past five years, according to the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN), the country imported chemical products worth nearly N5 trillion. That was only in one sector alone. The situation may not have been worse as this if the country’s four refineries were working. Those at the helms of affairs of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the last five years were only content spending about N120 billion yearly to refinery workers that were and still can’t refine a litre of fuel.

The inability of our refineries to refine crude oil has wreaked devastating havoc in destroying petrol-allied industries. In simply exporting crude oil to be refined abroad and returned to us as imported fuel, Nigeria is only helping the economies of other nations and relegating our development prospects. That has been the reason why our nation has been unable to come out of the Plato’s cave of despair.

The failure of the private sector has made government the only source of jobs for citizens. Most private companies have gone bankrupt, with many workers laid off. Though government jobs may not promise heaven on earth, nevertheless, they provide security and succour in moments of uncertainties.

Since the dawn of unbroken democracy in May 1999, many states have had to grapple with issues concerning job losses. It is on record that Kaduna has become a frontline state in constant confrontation with organised labour over issues relating to industrial harmony. During his second tenure, Governor el-Rufai had running battles with labour over sack of thousands of teachers, among other state workers. Despite the replacement of those sacked, the fears and anxiety of further job losses are yet to clear.

Sadly, some of these civil servants who voluntarily resigned or were forced to exit over five years ago are yet to receive their gratuities. For those on pensions, quarterly verifications have become recurring travails. The possibility of paying gratuities to these sacked and retired workers is diminishing daily. Civil service jobs in the state have lost their attractions.

It’s true that government is not elected to pay salaries alone, but if a government can’t pay salaries, then, such a problem must be resolved quickly. I believe that given a choice, many civil servants in Kaduna state are willing to throw in their resignations if only they can be assured of getting their severance payments and pensions. The mass suffering unleashed on former Kaduna state workers as a result of non-payment of gratuities is a sign that the civil service has become a trap of despair.

When Governor el-Rufai disclosed on Tuesday that only a paltry sum of N162. 9 million was left after paying salaries in November 2020, despite collecting N4.8 billion may sound troubling. What happened to the N50.9 billion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) accrued to the state last year. If the state actually generated N50.9 billion from IGR in 2020, which translated to N4.2 billion monthly, it means that the state had nearly N9 billion in November 2020. Or is it that there are certain issues the state citizens are not privy to?

Without any form of hesitation, it is obvious that when the welfare of citizens are threatened, desperate persons are lured to a life of crime. Government jobs in the absence of private sector jobs have become the succour for many Nigerians. Where the state government desires to cut down cost of governance, it should engage organised labour in a dialogue on how best to resolve all the issues.

It is needless reiterating the fact that working as a civil servant in Kaduna state has become an exercise to be endured. While it is the right of Kaduna State Government to do away with services of workers, such disengagement should be done within legal provisions, including payment of their gratuities and other severance payments. It amounts to illegality to embark on mass sack with no clues as to when they will be paid their entitlements. What chances are there that the thousands of workers facing the grim of sack may not be forced to taste the bitter water of previously retired and sacked workers?

It is better to have happy and prosperous citizens walking and driving on bad roads than have impoverished and angry citizens walking on streets of gold. Governor el-Rufai should think more on citizens’ welfare and dwell less on issues that don’t promote the immediate wellbeing of the people.

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