Former Information Minister Mr. Labaran Maku has sympathized with civil servants in Nasarawa State over the State Government’s failure to address their welfare. Mr. Maku who was reacting to the indefinite strike embarked upon by the Nigeria Labour Congress in Nasarawa State, said mismanagement of the state’s finances and unbridled corruption by the Al-Makura administration were the root cause of the workers’ plight.
Mr. Maku, who was the governorship candidate of APGA in Nasarawa State in the April 11 election, wondered how a government that set aside N100 million every month as security vote, which translated into N4.8 billion in four years, could fail to address the issue of workers’ welfare yet the state was one of the most unsecured in the country.
He said the N30 billion bond obtained by Governor Al-Makura, which was expended without any visible impact to show, had put the finances of Nasarawa State in a very precarious situation leading to a huge debt profile.
Mr. Maku is concerned that civil servants and the people of Nasarawa State have to bear the brunt of the ineptitude of the Al-Makura regime with its concomitant consequences, which are manifesting in the inability of the state government to pay workers’ salaries regularly, settle their arrears, allowances and other welfare packages, insecurity as well as widespread under-development in the state.
The former Information Minister remarked that no state could function effectively without accountability and judicious management of resources and that Nasarawa was a classic example of how a state could become dysfunctional due to massive corruption and high debt burden.
Mr. Maku expressed total solidarity with the civil servants and pledged the readiness of APGA to stand firm for accountability and transparency in governance in Nasarawa State.
He challenged Governor Al-Makura to explain how his government utilised the N30 billion bond secured from the Capital Market and also to account for the N4.8 billion misappropriated under the guise of security vote since the people still live in constant fear of attacks by insurgents who had been operating freely in Nasarawa State in the past four years.
Mr. Maku decried the high rate of poverty, hunger, violence and destruction of lives and properties since the advent of the Al-Makura government in Nasarawa State in 2011 and proffered that the only solution to the myriad of problems bedeviling the state was for Governor Al-Makura to resign since he had displayed the lack of capacity to manage the state.
