Fifteen years after he left government as a Military Administrator of Kaduna State, Colonel Hameed Ali (rtd), has finally opened up on why he sacked about 30,000 workers in 1997.
LEADERSHIP recall that the Col.? Ali, who assumed office on August 22, 1996, as State Administrator, sacked about 30, 000 striking civil servants and detained 18 local government chairmen in the state.
In an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP in Kaduna, Ali said he had to reduce the work force to enable him meet up with the developmental challenges of the state.
He said: “I sacked workers because two things happened: we had the incessant strikes and under that the law gave us the chance to look at the whole thing and dialogue and get a consensus, which workers refused.”
“Secondly, we had and instruction from the national level to reduce the size of our work force to a manageable level so that we could as well have workers and the same time have some money left for development, infrastructure and the well being of the state.”
Ali noted that the state allocation at the time was? N150 million, out of which N96 million was used to pay workers’ salaries, leaving very little for infrastructural development.
“To me, it was disastrous; I could not comprehend why some group of people would take the whole of money. That was why I reduced the workers, because government must be government. Government cannot allow people to decide for it what do. I am sure some of the sacked workers thanked me for what I did, because they had other opportunities elsewhere.
“When you get to the ministry then, they had 29 drivers, and out these drivers 19 of them were head drivers, which meant they were supervisors; there were only three vehicles in the ministry – for the permanent secretary, commissioner and one other utility vehicle. So, tell me what to do with the other drivers? Is it justified for them to sit down and do nothing?” he asked.
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