The Action Democratic Party (ADP) has carpeted the Kaduna State Government over the Strike Action by the organized Labour in the State on account of the sack of thousands of civil Servants in the State, including Teachers, Local and State Government Employees.

In a statement signed by its National Chairman, Engr. Yabagi Yusuf Sani, the ADP declared full support to the agitation of the organized Labour.

The full statement reads;

ACTION DEMOCRATIC PARTY, ADP
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, ABUJA

*To* : All media organizations

*Date* : Tuesday, 18th May, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

ADP CONDEMNS KADUNA STATE GOVT OVER  WORKERS STRIKE

The Action Democratic Party, ADP, has been  watching with keen interest the developments which precipitated the recent industrial action called by the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, in Kaduna state. As other observers may recall,  highlights of the sequence of the developments include the sacking of over 22, 000 teachers in 2018; the purge in the local government councils that swept off about 8000 workers and the latest booting given to over 4000 workers in the state civil service.

The leadership of the workers body is also kicking against the reported decision of the state government to continue on its trail of “anti labour policy” by retiring all officers on Grade Level 14 and above, all categories of workers that have put in more than thirty years in service ie who are above fifty years of age and also, to stop the payment of the pension dues of retirees “who have refused to die” after ten years of their retirement.

The ADP is in total accord with the NLC that the Kaduna state government  actions are  not only callous,  reckless and inhuman, but has as well,  severely and severally breached the  nation’s constitution, international labour laws and conventions. Our party further shares the expressed fears of labour that, if unchecked, other state governments would sooner than later borrow from  the Kaduna example   of unbridled assault on their civil servants.

The ongoing labour strike in Kaduna state is obviously a complication of  the prevailing agonising state of pains of a people already weighed down by the traumatic burden of insecurity and abject poverty largely due to a clueless administration that is impertinent and impervious to reason, averse to well intended opinions as it is haughty, pompous and insensitive to the suffering of citizens.

The ADP understands the weird  posture of the Kaduna state towards its civil servants as  the pangs and tantrums of a bankrupt government that had overindulged in  excessive borrowing and indebtedness. Just like the APC federal government’s recently muted intention to reduce salaries of its workers as a strategy of shoring up the parlous state of its finances, the APC government in Kaduna has simply resorted to making scapegoats and sacrificial lambs of its hapless, abused and beleaguered workers.

The ADP is particularly takes exception to the illegal treatment whereby those sacked including the teachers and others in 2017 are not paid their disengagement benefits, their gratuity and due  pension allowances. This attitude of the government is sordid, callous, arbitrary and a gross violation of extant laws and regulations regarding the disengagement of workers even on the framework of “redundancy” as being claimed by the state government.

While calling on labour to take cognisance of its members and the wider populace by being flexible and amenable to negotiations  that lead to a  peaceful, timely resolution of the impasse, the ADP however, maintains  that the Kaduna state government holds the ultimate ace to the restoration of normalcy.

Governor Nasir El- Rufai will have to climb down from his high horse and  bite the humble pie by revisiting indeed, reversing some of the policies and actions that are the grouse of the workers. The alternative to this suggested  panacea is in our view, a degeneration of the prevailing condition of anomie, general poverty and  despondency among the citizens with resultant  descent into a state of  heightened crime, insecurity and anarchy.

The ADP also urges the APC Federal government to step into the crisis  by deploying all necessary instruments at u
Its disposal to prevail  on the Kaduna state government to come off its hard-line posture,  impunity and recalcitrance. This is in view of the state’s raging  afflictions  of banditry, kidnapping and communal clashes and,  the visible potency of the brewing industrial action to snowball into another national crisis. A stitch in time they say, saves nine.

Engineer Yabagi Yusuf Sani,
National Chairman, ADP

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Action Democratic Party (ADP) Berates Kaduna State Government Over Workers Strike