Gov Sule Has Not Owed Any Civil Servant Salaries, Pension – Ag Governor Akabe
Governor of Nasarawa State, Engineer Abdullahi Sule has not owed salaries or pension to any civil servant in the State since he came into office.
This assertion was made by the Acting Governor of Nasarawa State, Dr Emmanuel Akabe when he spoke at the closing ceremony of the 2021 Reverends Fellowship of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ (ERCC). The fellowship held at Mada Hills Secondary School Akwanga from Tuesday May 11 and climaxed on Friday May 14, 2021.
Dr Emmanule Akabe said Governor Abdullahi Sule is a strong believer in the portions of the holy books that say a labourer deserves his wages and will never want to deny any civil servant his or her salaries or pension.
He said: “I like the words of the President here, that this government of Engineer Abdullahi Sule is based on accountability, it is based on inclusiveness. When he came in, he met what he met. The previous Governors did their best. He was to build on what has been there. One area that we took personal was the issue of the welfare of the people, particularly those working in government believing as the holy books will tell us, that a labourer deserves his wages. And that is why since he came, he has not owed any civil servant in the employment of this State any salary or pension. All the civil servants in the State get their salaries every month.
“But it is not the same with our Local Government. We must make that distinction. When we came in, there was a law in the land that the Local Governments must be given their autonomy. So immediately he came, as a law abiding Governor, he decided to follow the law and therefore allow the Local Governments to have their own full autonomy. I can tell you that since he came in, he has not touched one naira of Local Government allocations. He has not. All the monies for Local Governments, go to Local Governments. It was left for the Local Governments to manage their resources.”
He called on all the clergymen present to be awake to their responsibility as opinion leaders and the voices of their members to sue for positive change in the way their various Local Governments are being run.
“I would have been very sad if I didn’t come here today because this is a gathering of a very important sector of the State, a gathering of opinion leaders, a gathering of opinion moulders. Opportunities such as this come very rarely and once the opportunity comes, we must take advantage of it for us to meet you and for you to also see us. This State belongs to all of us. There is nobody that has more right in this State than we that are gathered here.”
On security, the Acting Governor assured that the Nasarawa State Government is well aware of the enormity of the security challenges in the State and that they are doing all they can to secure the lives and properties of the Nasarawa citizens.
Earlier on while welcoming the Acting Governor, the President of ERCC, Very Reverend Dave Denji commended the Nasarawa State Government for what he described as ‘people-oriented’ programmes.
He said, “We have, as a denomination, watched and followed your government closely and we appreciate the people-oriented programmes of your government. The church, though non partisan, we are always careful to partner with responsible governments that takes care of its people. And we see in your government, deliberate efforts to bring the dividends of democracy to our people. We are grateful and as a church we want to continue to enjoin you to keep the tempo of taking care of your people and taking care of the people that the Lord has saddled you with the responsibility of.
“We as a denomination pledge and continue to pledge that as a responsible denomination, our duty is to pray and support government. And that duty we will carry out with all diligence. We will support you, we will support the government, we will support every programme of government that is geared towards bettering the life of its people.
“However, the security situation and security problems in our country today; it is a situation that we cannot gather like this but to mention. Our people are not too safe. The land is not very safe. We will continue to pray for you, we will continue to encourage government, we will continue to encourage all those who are saddled with the responsibility of taking care of people, to be up and doing to ensure the security of lives and properties of citizens which is the core mandate of government.”
He appreciated the Acting Governor for creating time to attend the programme saying the church is pleased with the warmth of her relationship with the government.
The Reverend’s Fellowship is an annual programme of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ (ERCC) that brings together all Very Reverends and Reverends – both serving and retired – in ERCC. The sole purpose is for them to interact with one another, discuss challenges facing the church and also proffer solutions.
