Saturday, 15 May 2021: The Kaduna state government on Saturday said that it will implement its decision to rightsize the public service and not subject public policy to a mob’s veto.

The Commissioner of Local Government, Jafaru Sani, and Head of Service, Bariatu Y. Mohammed, stated the government’s position during a press conference on Saturday.

The state government explained that since late 2020, workers below Grade Level 14 have been staying at home as part of the Covid-19 prevention efforts, except those that have been declared as essential by their commissioners and agency head.

Therefore, it expects officers from Grade Level 14 upwards and workers on essential duty to continue at their duty post as usual.

According to them, KDSG regards the strike action and shutdown threats as futile gestures that will not stop it from taking the painful but necessary actions to cope with the fiscal crisis.

They said the Kaduna State Government believes that “the welfare of public servants is sustainable only within the larger context of the general welfare of residents of the state that the government itself is mandated to serve.

“Thus, it is not sustainable to persist in spending 84% to 96% of its FAAC receipts on salaries and personnel costs as has been the experience of the state since October 2020.”

The administration said it will protect its facilities and its workers’ right to access and exit their offices.

It disclosed that it has alerted the security agencies of plans by some trade unionists to get hoodlums to attack power transmission stations, hospitals and public infrastructure like streetlights and waterworks in a repeat of the violence and vandalisation wreaked by what it called the Ayuba Wabba-led hooligans during the November 2017 rampage in Kaduna.