Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has approved the disengagement of 19 political appointees.
This is contained in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Communication to the governor, Muyiwa Adekeye, today in Kaduna.
According to the statement: “he has approved the disengagement of the first set of political appointees to depart in the ongoing right-sizing of the public service.”
The disengaged appointees are Bala Mohammed, Deputy Chief of Staff Legislative; Halima Nagogo, Special Assistant; Umar Abubakar, Special Assistant; Ben S. D. Kure, Special Adviser Political; Mustapha Nyusha and Jamilu Dan-Mutum.
Others are Umar Haruna, Special Assistant Political; Zainab Shehu, Special Adviser Social Development; Stephen Hezron, Special Assistant to SAD SD; Mohammed Shuaibu, SSA Stakeholder Relations; Aliyu Haruna, SSA Youth; Halima Idris, SA Creative Arts.
The rest are Aliyu Salihu, DG Public Procurement Authority; Ashiru Zuntu, SA Community Relations; Saida Sa’ad, SSA; Elias Yahaya, SA Programmes; Tasiu Suleiman Yakaji, SA to SSG; Samuel Hadwayah, SA Economic Matters; and Ahmed Mohammed Gero SSA Environment
”El-Rufai thanked the appointees for their service to the state and wished them well in their future endeavours,’’ Mr Adekeye said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that on April 12, Mr El-Rufai made known his plan to disengage some public servants in the state for fiscal reasons.
He said a significant amount of the statutory federal allocations is being spent on the wages of public servants monthly.
“Therefore, the state government has no choice but to shed some weight and reduce the size of the public service. It is a painful but necessary step to take, for the sake of the majority of the people of this state.
“The public service of the state with less than 100,000 employees and their families cannot be consuming more than 90 per cent of government resources, with little left to positively impact the lives of the more than nine million that are not political appointees or civil servants.
“It is gross injustice for such a micro minority to consume the majority of the resources of the State,” he said.