Plateau Govt Not Owing Civil Servants 6 Months’ Salary – Manjang

Recently, there was a protest by the family of deceased civil servants who died in active service over non-payment of their death benefits. What is the state government doing to address their complaints?

Yes, some of them have been paid while some are yet to get their payment. Every month, some amount of money is set aside for the payment of gratuity, death benefits and pension.  I can assure  you that this government has the interest of the people at heart. It is a progressive government. We have made attempts to get a firm that will pay the death benefits of these workers. We engaged United Capital and they have undertaken to pay the gratuity and government will pay them via IPSO little by little at a discounted rate. We had a discussion with people that were involved and we all agreed that  it must be at discounted rate. There is a committee that was set  up and is working right now to ensure that the issue is resolved.

By the time everything is concluded, it will be a thing of the past. But in the interim, a certain percentage has been cleared by the state. A chunk of them has not been cleared but government is not just folding its arms and watching the situation. As you know, the  resources are dwindling; the economy generally is bad all over world and Plateau State is not an exception. It  is our intention that we should be able to pay this death benefits and gratuity to the families of deceased workers. If we are  unable to pay, the people that are coming after us should be able to do that. We have a document that we are going to present to them but to say that we have not paid or have not made any effort at all is not true. We are concerned; it is an unfortunate development as the issue is being addressed by the state government.

There is this claim by an online media outlet that the government owes civil servants six months’ salary arrears. How true is this allegation sir?

RELATED

Why Plateau Polytechnic Students Combine Academics With Skills Acquisition – Acting Rector

1 week ago

Why Fed Govt Must Fund Political Parties – NPSA President

4 weeks ago

You know that, that is erroneous and is not true. The state government as at today is owing, but not all the civil servants. We staggered the payments. As at today, the  political appointees are being owed  two months salary, while the core civil servants are owed one month salary. So, it is not true that the state government is owing up to six months salary. The claim is totally false. In fact, it is mischievous because everybody knows that we have paid the backlog; the backlog of no work no pay. We tried as much as possible; the Plateau State University Bokkos has resumed and very soon, the polytechnic is also reopening. Courses are being accredited in the tertiary institutions as well as recruitment. So, we have done tremendously well with labour and that is why they gave the governor award and workers themselves christened him, “Governor Alert”. Everybody knows that. Even the money that we got as our own intervention from the federal government was used judiciously for the reason it was given. There has  never been a time that  the state government is owing civil servants six months salary. However, as at today, civil servants are being owed one month salary, while political appointees are owed  two months’ salary. Besides that, we have plans to clear every arrear before the end of this administration.

The people of the state have expressed great concern over the  N30 billion Lalong legacy projects. What is the assurance that the legacy projects will be completed before the expiration of this administration?

Yes, as it is, the legacy projects are 22. There are model primary, secondary schools and hospitals. Some of them are  in the stage of completion. We may not be able to finish the projects for the reason that the projects contractor underperformed and the state government terminated the contract. He went to court twice and government got judgement in its favour. Very soon, works on the projects will commence again. About N18 billion was sourced from the capital market for the projects. As it is, we may not be able to complete them but the money is there for the incoming administration to continue from where we would stop. The total sum to finish the projects is N26 billion; N18 billion is already in the kitty and the state EXCO has given approval to take care of the variation. That is what the state government has done. The good news is that, some of these legacy projects are being taken over. For example, Government Secondary School Ajikaimai has been donated to the Federal Polytechnic Nyak for them to take off from there. So, what that means is that, the secondary school is going to be relocated and that also means that the legacy project there has been taken care of. Also, the legacy projects in Barkin Ladi, GSS Dengi and Shendam and many others have been taken over. The rest, it is believed that they will be completed before the end of this administration.

There are speculations that Governor Simon Lalong, like his predecessors, will not be able to install his successor. What is your take on this sir?

If I tell you yes or no, it means I have assumed the position of God and I am not God. In 2019, the same people were saying Governor Lalong can not win his second term election. In fact in 2015, they said ‘can any good thing come out from Ajikaimai?’ like it was told of Jesus Christ. Can any good thing come from Nazareth? The man won his election. In 2019, the people said the same thing; he won his election. It is on record that Lalong had never lost an election. Right from when he was a speaker, he survived ‘recall’ and served the longest as speaker in the history of Plateau State and northern Nigeria. God has favoured him.

Back to your question, we can’t say that with certainty but because of what he has done, we will put the speculators in the court of public opinion. Governor Lalong has touched the lives of so many people and so this is the payback time for them to reciprocate the gesture. But all we are saying is that, whosever that God ordains to be the governor of the state should have at the back of his mind what Governor Lalong has started by saying “Think Plateau and act Plateau.” That is the most important thing; it’s not about being able to install a successor or not. Of course, he will not fold his hands but above all, Plateau belongs to all of us and we will not remove the hands of God in the installation of leadership in the state.  Whoever God wants to be the governor of the state will remain a Plateau man.

In less than 8 months, the administration of Governor Lalong will come to end. What are some of the things he has done that he can be remembered for?

Well, there is enough to say. Like I always tell people, we live in the court of public opinion about what we need to do or what we have been able to do for them to assess us. However, this government is guided by a three policy-trust. That is what we use to measure our achievements; we have peace security and good governance, infrastructural development and sustainable economy rebirth. In all these three thematic areas, we have done a lot. In the area of peace, security and good governance, as you know, this administration came up with peace-building agency, the first of its kind in the country. The insecurity that was hitherto, being experienced, is no longer there; it has reduced to the barest. You also know that we did not use to have nightlife in the state but today, people enjoy night life in Jos.

It is in the court of public opinion that we were able to bring back night life in Jos. There are places that were no-go-areas. In the past, the city of Jos was segmented but now you can go to Angwan Rogo and people from there can also go to Hwolshe and other places.

Before now, we were under siege in the state and frequent imposition of curfew because of one crisis or the other and  bomb blasts. We have through extensive lobbying being able to attract the NAF station based in Kerang in Mangu LGA. We also have police mobile barracks in Shendam and bought over 200 motorcycles and 100 Hilux vehicles since the inception of this administration and distributed to security agencies. We have employed over 3,000 youths and trained as constabulary in Makurdi by the police. They have been distributed and they are helping in terms of intelligence and information gathering across the 17 LGAs.

The State Government also mid-wifed a peace-pact between warring communities of Bassa and Riyom and today, by the grace of God, we have appreciable level of peace in the state that we will be remembered for.

We can also be remembered in the area of infrastructural development as the only administration that completed some of the abandoned projects that we inherited from the previous government. Like the secretarial junction flyover bridge and the dualisation of the road to Mararaban Jamaa and many others.

We also have our own project at British America interchange which we are doing and by the grace of God, before the end of this administration, that project will be ready for commissioning. We have new roads that were constructed including the Shendam bye-pass that was constructed by this administration. The 22 Lalong legacy projects, though they have not been completed due to litigations, they are projects that have direct bearing on the lives of the people of the state.

We are not saying we have been able to do everything but we are doing our best. Sustainable economy rebirth has to do with work with a lot of human capital development, with so many social intervention programmes. The state government also establish the Plateau Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency, giving skills to not less than 30,000 youths on the Plateau. We have had three Plateau indigenes getting the vice president awards back to back on small and medium enterprises – Jerry Malo, Zang Bot  and Mafeng.

Also, the DG Plateau Information Technology Development Agency, Mr. Daser, introduced what we call Code Plateau. We have Code Plateau 1234 and Code Plateau 5. He is teaching young people how to code in terms of ICT and some of them have gotten employment with companies outside the country. They are sitting in the comfort of their homes in Jos working for companies  abroad and are being paid in foreign currencies.

Again, Plateau is one of the states that adjudged to be the second lest corrupt state in Nigeria two years ago. We got an award from Korea for transparency; we have keyed into the open government partnership (OGP) and it is based on transparency and gender issues. The law that we have in place which includes violence against vulnerable people is there to guide.