ViewPointNigeria presents an exclusive interview with Pamson Dagyat, Statistician General of Plateau state. In this exclusive he talks openly about several topical issues including: his pivotal role within the present Government, the alleged “Berom Agenda” of the Jang administration, benefits of the salary computerisation/automation exercise and the forthcoming Local Government elections. Below are the excerpts:

Your name resonates with a lot of youth on the Plateau because of your activeness on social media networks –however for the benefit of those who do not know you, could you introduce yourself?

My name is Gabriel Pamson Dagyat, I am a permanent staff of the University of Jos –within the Statistics and Support Services unit of the ICT department. Currently, I have been appointed by the State Government as a technical/statistics expert to the State Planning Commission. Part of this role is the computerisation and administration of the salary details of all public servants –that is what I am in charge of. (ViewPointNigeria: Readers should please note that since this interview with Pamson Dagyat, he has now been appointed Statistician General of Plateau State).

ViewPointNigeria presents an exclusive interview with Pamson Dagyat, Statistician General of Plateau state. In this exclusive he talks openly about several topical issues including: his pivotal role within the present Government, the alleged “Berom Agenda” of the Jang administration, benefits of the salary computerisation/automation exercise and the forthcoming Local Government elections. Below are the excerpts:

Q1. Your name resonates with a lot of youth on the Plateau because of your activeness on social media networks –however for the benefit of those who do not know you, could you introduce yourself?

My name is Gabriel Pamson Dagyat, I am a permanent staff of the University of Jos –within the Statistics and Support Services unit of the ICT department. Currently, I have been appointed by the State Government as a technical/statistics expert to the State Planning Commission. Part of this role is the computerisation and administration of the salary details of all public servants –that is what I am in charge of. (ViewPointNigeria: Readers should please note that since this interview with Pamson Dagyat, he has now been appointed Statistician General of Plateau State).

My appointment into this role was driven by my technical expertise in statistical analysis, forecasting and planning at the University of Jos, where I supported students and staff in data analysis, data interpretation, design of experiments and project execution. The aptitudes and learnings from that role has enabled me to apply the same principles into the salary computerisation programme –only, in this case, we use data to support evidence based planning as opposed to academic concepts. So we take large data sets, scrutinise them for trends and patterns and then come up with conceptualised solutions which will be implemented and monitored through entire project life cycles.

My office is based in the state secretariat, it comprises approximately 60 people –who are divided into several departments, including statistics, planning and monitoring & evaluation. We have been an integral part of the Government’s 10-point agenda and the current “Vision T-120 plan” –which comprises (1) Human capital development (2) Infrastructural development (3) Alternative funding sourcing.

A part of my work has been to source for “Alternative Funding”. The main tasks here are to search for donor support that will be beneficial to the wide majority of the state –funding which will not constitute a financial burden to the state in the future. To give you specific examples, some of the loans that past administrations took on behalf of Plateau state are still being paid today, even though the monies are long gone –that is not good for the state. We therefore try to avoid such stringent and unfair loans, only searching for ones with favourable terms. An example of a loan with a favourable term, taken on behalf of the state, is the Fadama II project –for which the governing body has assessed the Fadama team in Plateau as the best (in the entire nation) because of the quality of work done by the team in collaboration with the state government.

Also, we have been involved in the computerisation of salaries as a means of reducing wastage. The biometric registration of staff allows for the stamping out of the ghost worker phenomenon, salary fraud, regularisation of grade levels etc. The exercise also assists with boosting revenue collection by the board of internal revenue. Because tax payers are on the system, all monies paid would go to the right revenue pot. And currently we have been witnessing an exponential increase in the monthly tax collected. Currently the monthly internal revenue generated stands are N700 million, but we are hoping that by the end of the year, the monthly revenue figure of up to N1 billion can be realised.

Q2. Could you outline for our readers some of the challenges faced in the salary automation/computerisation exercise?

Firstly, this regime is not the first to attempt the computerisation or automation of salaries for public servants in Plateau –the current exercise is actually the fourth attempt. The drive behind the exercise was mainly from the view point that Government should know the exact number of staff on its payroll and the consequential financial burden of maintaining the staff. Like previous administrations, Government felt that it was necessary to centralise the salary system and as such felt the need to constitute an ICT committee –under the leadership of the special adviser Nyiang Gyang. Several technocrats from both private and public institutions were then brought in to assist with the exercise. To undertake the tasks, they defined the scope of work and reviewed the entire ICT deliverables in order to identify areas of improvement and consolidate on previous exercises. For instance, the committee met a contract for biometric capture which had already been awarded to an indigenous firm –Dalcan Nigeria Limited. Their initial scope of work was to capture biometric data in respect of staff ID, but then when this administration came along, they decided to expand the work scope to include the entire biometric spectrum. In addition to that, the committee saw the need for a total automation of the board of internal revenue, as a means of boosting and enhancing revenue collection/generation.

The main challenges of this exercise were mainly in the areas of the quality of work. Firstly, the initial work undertaken in respect of the salary centralisation was not done to the required quality and therefore there was poor cooperation from staff given that they were frustrated during the first exercise. So getting buy-in from these individuals was particularly difficult.
Before the computerisation exercise, the total salary of the state government on salaries of staff was between N1.7 – 1.8 billion monthly; however after the exercise we were able to bring that monthly expenditure figure down to approximately 1.6 billion. Giving a monthly saving of approximately 100 million (or perhaps 1.2 billion per year). Now, I cannot say whether this reduction was due to the much reported “Ghost Workers” phenomenon, but I can certainly say that high amounts of savings were realised.
Part of our work has been the development of an online portal for which staff can go to see their financial records and career progression history. Staff are able to login, check their salary details, see their grade level and manage their careers. The website can be accessed via the Plateau state government website.

Q3. The recent past has seen Plateau state witness a significant amount of strikes and industrial actions, what is your take on this matter?

Very true –Plateau has suffered a significant amount of Labour unrest in recent times, which have paralysed government businesses. Now, in as much as the Government wish to meet the demands of these staff, they would have to do that within the confines of the legal framework. And the key questions which remain unanswered are that –are staff entitled to payments during industrial strikes? Certainly as an administration, we belief that wages are earned and not just paid as a right, so if you take time off work to protest a certain action, then it may mean that you forfeit your right to a wage. With this disparity between the government’s position and that of labour, the issue has been referred to court and currently sits with the legal experts. Having said that, I must tell you that the Government and labour are currently enjoying a very cordial relationship. And I am optimistic that this relationship will be sustained for long time periods. I would like to assure your audience however the Government of Da. Jonah Jang is a very responsive one and that the Government will oblige to whatever decision the court decides to uphold.

Q4. With the stellar achievements of Jonah Jang, do you think after his tenure, there will be other visionary leaders, who can take over and match his achievements?

Well, Plateau state has never had it as good as it has under this administration. Da Jonah Jang has been able to put in place a functional and sustainable governing structure for service delivery to Plateau people, but as well as that, he has been carrying out an extensive mentoring programme for youth who would carry on with his legacy. The objective of the mentoring programme, as he always says, is for the youth to take their role as leaders in our ever changing society. So it is evident that we will see more youth taking pole position in Governance and leadership, the likes of Senator G N S Pwajok, Chris Kwajah, Shedrach Best and many more. All these gentlemen are being groomed to take over governance in many capacities. Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, Jonah Jang has set before us a standard and I know that having experienced the benefits of this excellent service delivery, Plateau people will not expect anything less. If you look around, you’d see that regardless of the challenges of security, the relatively low subvention from the Federal Government, the meagre internal revenue generation capacity of the State, the elder statesman has proved that a responsible Government can be ran with prudent management of resources. And I must pause here to state that I am very proud to be associated with his Government.

Q5. The time table of the Local Government elections has just been released, how confident are you that the elections will be hitch free?

Firstly, the delay in undertaking the Local Government elections were due to security reports, which showed that it was in the best interest of the state to stave off the elections until clearance was obtained. Now that that go ahead has been received and we can see that people are working together as their brothers and sisters, the Government thought it was expedient to schedule the elections. Evidence of this calm can be seen during the Plateau North senatorial bye elections which brought in Senator GNS Pwajok –no major hitches were experienced and the results were generally passed as credible. Having said that, being a servant within a PDP Government, I must say that I am confident of a PDP victory in most areas of Plateau state because of the distinguished achievements of the Jang administration.

In respect of trouble in Jos North, we do not expect any confusion or violence because we know that the people within those confines are tired of the debacle and would rather live in peace following the decade of unrest. We are confident that they will offer their mandate to whomever the construe as the best candidate and that any grievance can be thrashed out through civilised legal channels. For instance, we know that there are numerous instances where courts have over-turned elections results because of perceive election malpractice and people are very aware of this.

Q6. Several individuals have accused Jonah Jang or running a Government exclusive to only the Berom ethnic group. Is this unfounded? Or what is your take on this matter?

Well the constituency is very clear in this respect, it says that the State council must be made up of representatives from all local governments of the state. And I can tell you that all Local Governments are duly represented in the Government. In fact, some even have two representatives or more. But if people are concerned with the representation of Beroms in the Government, then it is no secret that this ethnic group span approximately 4 local Government areas and by virtue of that advantage, they’d typically have representatives for all these areas. In the same vien, should Taroh people only have 1 representative even though they are found in Langtang North, Langtang South and Wase? Should Ngas people only have one? Seeing as they are in Kangke and Pankshin? We can go on and on with that logic, but I doubt if that is fair. So to answer your question succinctly, I don’t believe there is an ethnic agenda –if anything more ethnicities are represented within this administration than anywhere else. How then would you explain, having a senior assistant for Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo affairs? I can tell you that not all past administrations went that far.

Q7. Being an active user of social media (Facebook), could you tell us how that has benefitted you in executing you role or perhaps in your personal life?

Being a statistician, I am very familiar with the importance of social media because it is a good Platform to gauge people’s perception of Government policies and to understand the pulse of the electorate. But I must make it clear that what I do is a personal undertaking of mine and not necessarily a commission of my role within the Government. As such I try to be careful about what I say, because I speak on my capacity as Pamson Dagyat and not as a spokesman for Government as people can erroneously construe.
However, there is no doubt that social media is like a constituency –several important discussions, aptitudes, ideas and concepts are generated within that virtual space and then brought to reality in our societies.

And as such I must commend ViewPointNigeria, MOPPLAH and other youth groups for their consistency in sensitising Plateau people in cyberspace about happenings in and around Plateau state.

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Pamson Dagyat Interview: Accusations of an ethnic agenda against the Jang administration are unfounded and baseless