WHY I APPLAUDED HIS EXCELLENCY,DR AGBU KEFAS FOR APPROVAL OF FUNDS, FOR THE PAYMENTS OF GRATUITY’S BACKLOGS.
While Payments of salaries is not an achievements because it is the legal rights of employees, and as such legal actions/civil claims, can be filed against the employer in court, especially in developed and saner climes,where there’s respect for the rule of laws, and where employees knows that their salaries is a legal rights and not a favour or part of social programs/privilege.
That is why in developed climes, the moment a government or any organization realizes that, they cannot longer sustain their fiscal responsibilities, they quickly downsize their workforce by laying off less critically needed staffs.
The flip side of this is, in Nigeria bulk of the salary payments can be said to be a social program, because the government doesn’t need the services of bulk of the civil servants, especially the local governments staffs.
A government that is concern about efficiency will disengage most of this civil servants adding no economic value nor essential services to the government,like Nasir El-Rufai did.
But from the social programs perspective, they’re being retained and more are being added, thus making recurrent expenditures bulky,leaving less than 40% of annual budget for basic capital infrastructures to help the private sector thrives.
Having said that, even in saner and developed climes, if a new government or leadership of an organization comes on board, and took up responsibilities for the failures of previous government, to pay workers defrauded of their legal rights their rights, that can be said to be a huge achievements.
Especially if that’s done with even an increase in the minimum wage and without downsizing the workforce.
The ability to fix one’s responsibilities including inherited liabilities is a huge achievements.
It takes a government that is responsible to pay attention to backlogs, especially under the present economic hardships.
I will not applaud his Excellency for payments of salaries, because it is the legal rights of civil servants, just as the governor has the same legal right for his salary and entitlements.
I remembered how Jolly Name and co filed a civil claim against DDI’s government over their legal rights in court and they were paid.
But I applauded him for accepting responsibilities and liabilities of his predecessors, to offset the legal rights of retirees, without being dragged to court over liabilities that he inherited.
After all we are in Nigeria where Pensioners won’t even take any legal actions including civil servants.
Leadership is the acceptance of responsibilities to fix the rot inherited, while breaking new grounds. Fixing such rots is an achievements.
He could’ve chosen not to clear backlogs and nothing will happen, and it won’t stop him from winning the next election.
Increasing minimum wage, offsetting backlogs of TSU’s salaries,and now offsetting backlogs of gratuities with inherited debts from his predecessors,is a serious burden to carry.
We all knew that whoever succeeds DDI as a governor will have a lot of burden to bear.
Already,Kaduna state’s governor is crying about how they’re finding it hard to sustain their fiscal responsibilities.
That’s the major reason why some of us kept writing about the needs for a highly cerebral,exposed and experienced robust/formidable cabinet/economic team/inner circle members, that will bring innovative ideas,capacity, & experience on board, that will derive economic strategies/policies to block leakages,boost IGR
and reduce the cost of governance to enable this government achieve and sustain it’s fiscal responsibilities.
~STEVE BIN-HARUNA
