Barely 24 hours before the planned nationwide protest against bad governance, Bauchi State Governor, Sen. Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, declared that urgent efforts must be taken to meet the demands of agitators, which he said are justifiable.
The Governor made this statement on Wednesday during the commencement of the State Executive Council (SEC) meeting held at the EXCO Chambers of the Governor’s Office.
According to him, “While urging them to please understand with the government, shelve their planned protest, and come to the roundtable for discussion, they should see reasons.”
He added, “Most of the things they said are true and genuine; there is a lot of anger and hunger in the country.
“We must be able to fill up the ungoverned spaces, provide good governance, and reduce the cost of living for the people.”
Bala Mohammed commended members of the EXCO for being diligent in their responsibilities, highlighting the “rich and meaningful memos” they presented for the meeting.
He noted that if approved and implemented, these memos would positively impact the lives of the people of the state.
However, he lamented that there are still “a few saboteurs within who are not making things work the way they should,” saying, “By now we should have been done with the rural areas, but it seems like we are just starting.”
According to him, “We have done so much in the areas of infrastructure and are about to move to the social sector.
“Only yesterday (Tuesday), I was at the NYSC camp in Wailo village; the level of dilapidation is unprecedented. It is a good vegetation area, but the structural deficit is very terrible.”
He emphasised, “We need to look into those areas and provide social services. Our critical infrastructure and tertiary institutions in both the education and health sectors, as well as our training institutes, must all be addressed in addition to the reforms we have carried out.”
The Governor also stated that “the Civil Service must be repositioned in order to provide good governance,” calling for “a thorough review to fish out the remaining ghost workers in the payroll and nominal roll of the state civil service and LGA workforce.”
He mentioned that the committee set up is doing well but noted, “There are some people who do not want it to work. I am aware of such, but I am just keeping quiet. It does not do well for me to show that I know, but we are aware. Let the committee go ahead with its assignment.”
He lamented that the wage bill is excessively high, stating, “The state cannot afford to be paying over N3 billion for both state and LGA workers; it must be reduced to at least N2 billion each after fishing out the remaining ghost workers.”
The Governor stressed that “all hands must be on deck to enable my administration to achieve the set objectives of Bauchi Project 1 and 2 in order to make the state far better than what it was in 2019 when I came on board as Governor.”
According to him, although the state had lagged behind in terms of infrastructure and social development, “the current development is an indication of where the state wants to be in the next 15 to 20 years.”
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