‘el-Rufai’s mass sack of workers, threat to security’

The Maina Zazzau Campaign Organisation, on Monday, criticized the sack of over 36,000 workers by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State.
The group, in a statement in Kaduna by its Secretary, Ibrahim Zango, said that the action of the government would create poverty, hunger and raise the crime rate in the state.
The committee, which coordinates media activities of Dr Muhammed Sani-Bello, a governorship aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), added that the move would also erode gains made in reducing unemployment by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“This move is not only insensitive to the extreme economic hardship plaguing the citizens, but would also create unemployment.
“It’s a scheme set to undo the minimal gains recorded by President Muhammadu Buhari’s N-power project and the economic diversification programme of this administration,” the group said.
The group believed that, if the ultimate objective of the state government was massive reduction of workforce across ministries, Departments and Agencies, “there were better ways of doing it.“
” We stand in complete opposition to the anti -workers policies of governor Nasir El-Rufa’i that are deepening poverty and deprivations as well as
circumscribing the fundamental rights of the people, particularly workers in the state.
” The basic minimum is that the principle of collective bargaining in Labour relations as enshrined in our national Labour laws and conventions of the International Labour Organization must be followed,” it added.
The group also advised the governor to put in place measures to cushion the serious social consequences of adding 36,000 workers and their families to
the number of unemployed people in the state “at a period when crime rate is growing at a frightening speed.“
It would be recalled that the state government had said that there was no going back on its ongoing reform of the civil service.