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You’re deceitful, wasteful – Kwara Stakeholders

…condemns N547m for fresh screening exercise

 

By Mumini Abdulkareem

A group, Kwara Stakeholders Consultative Forum has called on the Kwara State Governor, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to commence the payment of the new minimum wage forthwith instead of giving excuses that it described as deceitful and preposterous.
The forum which also sponsors a popular radio programme in the state tagged “Efura” in a press release on the minimum wage development accused the governor of being unfair to civil servants in the state who voted for him.
It accused the government of being insensitive to the plight of the workers by approving huge undisclosed amount of money to renovate the Government House which was recently renovated by the last administration adding that the new wage was not even captured in the 2020 budget.
The statement which was signed by its Media Anchor, Hon Ahmed Ayanshola Muhammed reads in part:
“We are of the opinion that the reasons adduced by the Governor for not paying the workers are deceitful and preposterous.
“How can a governor who several times in the past said he was ready to pay workers, including local government staff and pensioners their legitimate entitlements as at when due now turn around to rehearse the same rhetoric he once condemned. The reality is that Governor Abdulrazaq has been unfair to Kwara civil servants.
“Few weeks after he was sworn into office, he approved the renovation of the state government house with a huge amount, knowing for a fact that the same government house was just renovated by the immediate past government”, it added.
On the ongoing conduct of fresh screening for workers in the state which the government said it has earmarked over half a billion naira, the forum lampooned the Abdulrazaq for revisiting an exercise it has earlier carried out adding that such action amount to waste of the state huge but scarce resources on hotel expenses and the Patigi bye-election.
According to Kwara Stakeholders, “Now Governor Abdulrahman has approved another N547m for workers’ verification, the same exercise he did on assumption of office but has yet not officially released the result. It is of opinion that state, local government, SUBEB and pensioners is about 60,000 (sixty thousand). With this figure, it means a staff would be screened for N9,000. Is this not a wasteful spending? Also, in a situation where government officials are allegedly kept in an hotel for months at government expenses and where large sum of money is spent on Patigi constituency Bye-election; it would be supremely difficult to believe that the government is not buoyant enough to pay the new minimum wage of N30,000 with reasonable consequential adjustments.
“It’s  interesting to note that the new minimum wage which has been subject of discussion between government and workers for over two months and common ground yet to be agreed; was not even featured into the 2020 Budget presented by the Governor”, it noted.
The forum, therefore advised the governor to set up an economic team to come up with sustainable economic strategies for the state and review the 2020 Budget in order to accommodate worker’s interest. The payment of minimum wage should no longer be delayed”, it submitted.

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