By Ahmed Kaigama
The governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Bauchi State, retired Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar has promised to reform the civil service to demystify governance for effective service delivery if elected in the forthcoming general election.
He stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Bauchi.
Abubakar, who spoke through his spokesman, Mr Sabo Mohammed, said the measure was imperative to check financial leakages and fraudulent activities bedeviling the civil service in the state.
He expressed concern over the huge wage bill in spite of the low revenue base of the state.
The governorship hopeful said that he had consulted with relevant stakeholders and came up with a blueprint to address the menace for sustainable social and economic development of the state.
“This is to ensure that issues relating to fraud in the civil service come to an end and provide employment opportunities for the unemployed graduates.
“The scarce resources should be committed to the construction of schools, health facilities and other services with direct impact on the citizenry,” he said.
He also promised to settle outstanding pension and gratuity arrears to retired workers in the state.
“I will ensure that those who served the state diligently for 35 years and retired do not suffer because we will address fraud in the payment and claims by pensioners”.
The candidate said he would initiate sound programmes to diversify the economy to boost the state revenue.
Abubakar said that if given the mandate his administration would encourage youth and women to study petro chemical engineering and related disciplines, to enable them to be employ in oil and mining industries in the state.
He urged the people of the state to vote for APC candidates at all levels to ensure completion of the oil exploration and execution of viable projects in the state. (NAN)
