Governor Uba Sani has said that his administration has complied with the Minimum Wage Act because no civil servant in Kaduna State is earning less than N70,000.
The governor, who reiterated his antecedents as a human rights activist, further said that the least paid worker in Kaduna State is being paid N72,000 because he believes in the dignity of labour.
Addressing workers at Murtala Square where the Workers Day was celebrated on Thursday, May 1st, the governor said that he has been in streets to agitate for the return of democracy and workers rights in the past.
Governor Uba Sani however acknowledged that what has not been resolved is the issue of incremental adjustment of salaries, promising that the issue will be resolved.
‘’I have been involved in the struggle for labour rights, workers rights. That is my antecedent. Because of my background, I sat down with the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress(NLC).
‘’I made it clear to them that though we have met the minimum wage requirement but there is something called incremental adjustment which is discretionary.
‘’Because of my relationship with both NLC and TUC, I asked them that we should sit down and come up with a formular that will make every worker in Kaduna State happy, irrespective of his or her status and they came up with three different options,’’ he disclosed.
The Governor promised that ‘’today I want to reaffirm to all of you here that by the grace of God, we will look at the incremental adjustment and ensure that even senior civil servants will benefit because we have to make our workers happy.’’
Governor Uba Sani further said that the upliftment of the living conditions of pensioners is of topmost priority to his administration, adding that last month his government released N3.8 billion to settle outstanding gratuities, death benefits and accrued rights under the Contributory Pension Scheme.
‘’Since the inception of our administration, we have paid cumulatively the sum of N10.4 billion in gratuity, death benefits and accrued rights in the Contributory Pension Scheme,’’ he added.
According to him, the payment of such a huge sum to pensioners is unprecedent, adding that ‘’I’m happy that the Chairman of NLC has said that we inherited most of these problems.’’
The governor said that he has approved the recruitment of 1,800 medical personnel to strengthen the state’s Primary Health Care System and 3,000 teachers have also been employed to boost the capacity of public schools.
He disclosed that three months ago, Kaduna State bagged the award of the best subnational in Primary Health Care in Nigeria because ‘’we are the only state that has upgraded 180 of our 255 PHCs to Level 2 status.’’
Speaking on the ongoing strike action by the Kaduna State University Branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU), the Governor said that his administration has done everything to reposition the school.
According to him, more than 60% of their courses were not accredited when he assumed office but his administration expended over N300 million to ensure that it secures NUC’s accreditation.
The Governor said that the demands of the striking lecturers accumulated over a period of 17 years, which about three of his predecessors were unable to settle the liabilities, totalling N5 to N6 billion.
‘’In spite of this, the lecturers want us to settle these liabilities now and I said no. I said that we have to sit down and have a dialogue. I then asked them where were their voices in the last 17 years?’’
‘’’We have to sit down and see how we can address the issue gradually. It is not something that can be addressed in one day. A problem of 17 years can’t be settled in a day,’’ he added.
Governor Uba Sani promised that the problem is going to be addressed because education is the greatest leveller, adding that ‘’we will ensure that both the academic and non academic staff of KASU are settled.’’
The Star