GOVERNMENT OF NASARAWA STATE
Speech Delivered by His Excellency, Umaru Tanko Al-makura, the
Governor of Nasarawa State on the Occasion of the Commencement of
Biometric Screening Exercise for Public Servants on the Nasarawa State
Payroll, Lafia: Monday, 7th July, 2014.
capture of the bio-metric and screening exercise of the civil servant
in Government House, Lafia
1. His Excellency, the Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State;
2. The Right Honorable Speaker, Nasarawa State House of Assembly;
3. The Honorable Chief Judge of Nasarawa State;
4. The Grand Kadi, Sharia Court of Appeal;
5. The President, Customary Court of Appeal;
6. Principal Officers and Members of the State House of Assembly;
7. Members of the State Executive and Security Councils;
8. The Secretary to the State Government;
9. The Head of Civil Service;
10. Special Advisers;
11. Permanent Secretaries;
12. The State Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC);
14. Chairmen and Chief Executives of Commissions, Boards and Parastatals;
15. Executive Chairmen of Local Government Councils present;
16. Directors of Personnel Management of Development Areas;
17 Gentlemen of the Press;
18. Ladies and gentlemen.
It is my pleasure to address you today on the occasion of the
Commencement of Biometric Screening Exercise for public servants on
The payroll of the Government of Nasarawa State taking place here in
Government House, Lafia.
It would be recalled that when this Administration came into office
in May, 2011, it inherited a public service whose morale was generally
low. This was as a result of poor remuneration and lack of sundry
Incentives to public servants. Concerned by this situation, this
Administration quickly set the machinery in place to carry out a
biometric screening of the State public servants. The exercise was
aimed at ascertaining the size of the Service, eliminating the ghost
Workers syndrome and improving productivity for efficient service
Delivery in the State.
It is important to note that the biometric screening exercise
that Government carried out in 2011 was done amidst the debate over
the new national minimum wage introduced by the Federal Government at
the time. Satisfied by the result of the exercise, therefore, I did
not hesitate to approve the implementation of N18,900 minimum wage for
civil servants in the State. In doing so, Government was determined to
Stimulate dedication, hardwork, accountability, as well as eliminate
Corruption in the system.
I am happy to state that Nasarawa is still among the few States
Currently implementing the minimum wage in the country. This is
despite our very lean financial purse vis-à-vis competing development
needs. I also need to state that following the implementation of the
Minimum wage, the salary bill of the Nasarawa State public service has
shot up astronomically above N2 Billion. This has, no doubt, added to
the plethora of challenges that we face in our development endeavor.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are aware of the unprecedented security
Challenges that we had to contend with in the recent past. Added to
this, demands for increase in workers’ welfare, including
Implementation of promotion and annual increment, have continued to
bloat Government expenditure. Indeed, the high rate of exit from the
Service due to retirement and death, among other reasons, suggests
that there should be a drop in the salary bill.
It is worthy to note, however, that public servants retire from
active to passive service with their wages. This means as pensions and
gratuities rise, salaries should decrease. Sadly, this is not so, as
both salaries and pensions continue to increase out of proportion,
thus constituting a heavy wage burden on Government. As a consequence,
Government is unable to meet labour demands, employ more hands into
the Service, as well as satisfy other socio-economic obligations.
It is in this connection that this biometric screening exercise is
being carried out to identify genuine employees of Government and weed
out the ghosts.
Let me point out that this exercise is not intended as a witch-hunt
or punishment for the workforce. I, therefore, enjoin the leadership
of the organized labour to accord this exercise maximum cooperation. I
urge you to mobilize workers to avail themselves for this important
exercise for the good of all.
At this juncture, I commend our partners, Skye Bank Nigeria Plc,
for keying into the development objectives of this Administration as
Demonstrated by the provision of free service for this exercise. We
thank you for living up to your corporate social responsibility. I
assure you that, as a Government, we shall continue to explore areas
of collaboration with you for the overall development of our beloved
State.
On this note, it is my pleasure to commence the biometric
screening exercise.
Thank you and God bless.
