By Bashir Mohammed
Kano
Kano state government has repealed the tenure regime for directors and top local government officials in the state civil service.
The followed the signing into law of the State Pension and Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, 2017, by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, at the Government House in Kano.
Hitherto, directors in the state civil service who served in that capacity for eight years automatically retired from service, while local government employees such as directors of personnel, heads of departments, and workers on grades 14-15 would also proceed on retirement, if they stayed for eight years on the same grade level.
Ganduje, who signed the law while receiving the National President of National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Ibrahim Khalil, explained that “the amended law would eliminate some of the encumbrances encountered in terms of career progression in the civil service.”
The governor dwelt on the problems bedeviling local administrations in the country, especially lack of autonomy and insufficient capacity to provide good leadership on the part of some elected political leaders at the local government level.
On the proposed rally on local government autonomy by NULGE, the governor explained that even though what they intended to do was legitimate, they should not allow bad eggs to hijack the activity and cause chaos.
On his part, the National President of National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Ibrahim Khalil, said they North-west leadership of the union was in the state as part of an advocacy tour on local government autonomy.
He appealed to the state government to consider re-inventing the Local Government Service Commission in addition to putting in place a sachem of service that would favour local government workers, “in view of their instrumentality in grassroots development.”
