It is a truism that the civil service is the backbone of government machinery since government’s policies and programmes are most often than not, implemented by the civil servants.
Indeed, to get the best of public service delivery, there must be deliberate and concerted efforts to reposition the civil service through training and retraining of workers, prompt payment of their salaries and emoluments among other welfare packages which will serve as incentivising factors.
In Gombe state, the Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s administration is mindful of the need to provide the needed impetus to the civil servants to ensure optimum service delivery. To this end, the administration has revamped the civil service by motivating workers with prompt payment of salaries and regular promotions. The governor has also employed many qualified indigines of the state as part of measures to strengthen the civil service, despite the financial predicament facing the state.
There is no gainsaying the fact that many state governments in the country find it difficult to give new employments to citizens just as some grapple to pay monthly salaries as at when due as a result of lack of either adequate funds or political will to do so.
Unarguably, some state governments rarely give priority to workers’ welfare or employment to fill the vaccum created in the civil service by either death or retirement.
However, Governor Inuwa Yahaya has since his assumption of office embarked on provision of massive infrastructures and come up with many policies to improve the welfare of the existing civil servants in the state and initiated many programmes aimed at providing jobs to the teeming idle youths in the state. Some of these appointments were in permanent civil service while others were special jobs.
For instance, in January 2020, the governor implemented the N30,000 national minimum wage in which both state and local governments workers are beneficiaries of the new salary package. Local Education Authority (LEA) staff who used to receive meagre salaries now benefit from the new national minimum wage implemented by the governor.
What is more interesting is that, unlike in some states where salary is like a privilege whereby workers are not assured of their money at the end of every month, in Gombe, civil servants collect their salaries on 26 or 27 of every month. Moreso, 65 per cent on the increase of CONHESS and CONMESS, special allowances for civil servants was considered by the governor for implementation.
The present administration does not toy with the workers’ promotions too as all deserving officers get elevation as at when due. Available records show that a total of 3, 221 workers were promoted by the governor even as he appointed 102 directors in the past three years.
The chairman Gombe State Civil Service Commission Hajiya Rabi Jimeta said they have standardized guidelines for appointments, promotions and discipline to ensure that anybody that has to be promoted, he has to merit it.
“Is not a matter of I know someone, there are merits. Before you are promoted, you must have merited the promotion. You must have spent the necessary years of service. We don’t just pick you for promotion because we like you. There are major criteria; You have to merit the promotion through interview or examination and you must have spent the necessary years.
“So now that the government is not playing with their welfare in terms of payment of their salaries on time and taking care of their working environment and all other issues associated with them, it is only fair that the civil servants should reciprocate by being diligent, committed, punctual and by discharging their responsibilities without any blemish”. She advised.
On the new employments by the administration, last week, the government through the Teachers Service Commission has employed 1, 000 new teachers and recently approved the employment of 440 new health workers. The list of the new teachers has since been released and the employees were currently carrying out documentation after which they would be posted to the different schools in the state.
The recruitment elicited encomiums and jubilation in the state because they are not only providing jobs to youths but would revitalize the education and health sectors as health workers and teachers provide essential services.
Many university, polytechnic and colleges of education graduates who had been wandering around from one ministry, department and agency to another looking for jobs applied for the teaching jobs and got recruited. Teachers and students also expressed delight over the new recruitment because in many schools, teachers were overstretched.
“This is a good development. Whenever a government does what is right, we need to praise it so that it will be encouraged to do more. This is a very happy development. Many of our graduates are now engaged and I believe they will add value to the education sector” A resident of the state Mohammed Idris said.
“This is a great achievement to the Gombe community. May Allah guide us to discharge our duty diligently. I wish us the new teachers, best of luck”. A newly employed teacher who does not want to be mentioned said while celebrating his luck to make the list.
Other special works provided by the governor to the youths who could not get permanent employment in civil service were engagement of 20, 000 youth in the planting of four million trees in the state under the ‘Gombe Goes Green’ (G3) initiative, recruitment of 500 youths into the Gombe State Security, Traffic and Environmental Corps, (GOSTEC) and Gombe Human Capital Development Project in which 1, 000 youths were given tricycles popularly called ‘Keke NAPEPS’ on loans.
While providing infrastructures, governors should also do well in providing employment and improving the well being of their workers in order to address poverty. This is achievable when a government defines its priorities and utilizes the available resources judiciously. Inuwa Yahaya is one governor that considers both infrastructures and jobs provision as the top priorities of his government having performed excellently in the two aspects.
