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| Hon Dati |
Commissioner clears the air on
speculations regarding on-going recruitment exercise in Plateau, says Gov
Lalong is a promise keeper.
Hon Yakubu Dati is the Commissioner
ministry of Information, Plateau state. Recently, he granted interview to
African Drum and cleared the air on variety of issues concerning the state and
further expressed confidence on the people’s resolved to re- elect Governor
Simon Bako Lalong in 2019. Enjoy the excerpts
Sir, going by the directive given by his
Excellency, Simon Lalong to the state Civil Service Commission to recruit more
than 1,000 people to fill-in vacancies in the civil service, there has been
speculation that the government has decided to just confirmed those who are already
serving but on contract basis. What is the actual position on this issue?
Thank
you very much, first and foremost, the reason for the recruitment is because
there has been no recruitment in the civil service for several years and
Governor Simon Lalong thought it wise that in other to strengthen the service,
there is a need to inject new blood in it especially the youth. So in line with
the five-policy thrust of this administration of providing employment to the
people, we made the advertisement which has received a lot of enthusiasm most
especially from the unemployed. So we believe that with that, it would ginger
the civil service. As you know, Gov. Laong is an award winning labour friendly
governor, so anything that has to do with labour, he is always in the
forefront. That is why he has been paying salaries as at and when due. He is also creating the opportunity to make
the youths part of the civil service and that has also strengthened our support
base across the state. We are also working in the area of entrepreneurship
development. PLASMEDA has so far trained more than 20,000 youths and women
across the 17 local government areas. All these have projected Lalong as a
promise keeper.
So the speculation that MDAs would
permanent the appointments of ad-hoc or casual staff instead of embarking on new
recruitment from new applications is not true?
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| Dati |
Well,
we want to give equal opportunity to everybody and that is why it was
advertised by the civil service and this would pass through processes and
procedure that would give everybody the opportunity. That means whether you are
a casual staff or not you have the opportunity to apply through the normal
process. The most important thing is that his Excellency wants the process to
be open and transparent so that everybody is given equal opportunity and in the
end, we would have the best hands to run the civil service machinery. But when
you restrict the exercise to only casual workers that means you are closing the
door to those who are not and that is not fair.
I
also want to say that Governor Simon Lalong is confident of winning the
forthcoming election because as a young man, he has attracted the youths to himself
and as a man that has fulfilled his promises to the people of Plateau State and
has also brought unity to the State, the people are happy and that shows that
other contestants are just there to fill-in the space. But Plateau people have
made up their mind more so because of the zoning formula that is engraved in
their minds. The people know that after Lalong’s 8 years, the governorship goes
to another zone, but if a new person is elected from the Southern zone in 2019,
he would probably go for another 8 years. For this reason, the people of
Plateau are united in saying that Lalong must come back in the next election
and we want to thank the people of Plateau State for being resolute in their
decision.
Gov. Lalong has promised to put
infrastructures in the state. However people are saying that though he has
completed some of the projects initiated by his predecessor, he had also
initiated new ones but have been on stand still until recently that some contractors
were mobilized to sites. Consequently, they are saying that the new development
is just for the purpose of the election that is around the corner and
thereafter, the work would stop. What is your take on this?
We
are happy that Lalong came in and the first thing he did is to complete
abandoned projects by the last administrations. When he did that, people did
not say it was for election. When he brought Mr. President and secured the potato
value chain; when he opened the Plateau State University; when he re-opened the
fertilizer blending plant, they did not say it was for election or were all
these done during electioneering period? Governor Lalong has been working
tirelessly since he assumed office for the interest of the people of Plateau
State. However, because we are in a political era, some people would always criticize
and that is why they are called opposition. Projects are on-going but the
opposition would always complain. When Gov Lalong completed abandoned projects;
they said he has not initiated his own project. Now that he has initiated his
projects, they say it’s because of the election.
So,
we leave the opposition to continue lamenting but we will never deviate from
our mandate and commitment to the people and we would make sure we reach out to
them. Today, the legacy projects which include schools and health centres are
areas where the governor is passionate about to ensure that we reach every
rural community and give opportunity for education and health care to every
person on the Plateau.
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| Hon Dati |
There has been reported cases of rape
and shortage of food and other materials in the IDPs camp in the state which
did not prompt the government of the state to relocate them to their
traditional or original abodes until recently which again, many are attributing
it to the fact that the governor has decided to return the IDPs to their
original abodes because of the election. What do you have to say about this?
Our
focus is to relocate the IDPs and that is what informed the AVM Danbaba
resettlement committee and after the committee submitted its report, the
government immediately moved to Gashish and inspected facilities that was
given, and as I speak to you; just last week, the commissioner of Housing was
there to start renovation so that the police force would be able to have their personnel
on ground because our ultimate objective is to return the IDPs home in a
secured environment. So, we are committed the ensuring that before they even go
home, they have the basic necessity of life in place. The fact is that whatever
you give to a person but that person is not at home; he is not a happy person.
And that is why, our focus for now is to return them to their original place of
abode and that can only be done if the place is secured. We are also not
unmindful of the fact that a lot of criminal elements are operating because
both the Beroms and Fulanis have formed criminal gangs that go into cattle rustling
and at the end of the day, they hide under the issue at hand make it look as if there is still fight
between one community and the other. So, we are trying to separate the criminal
elements and deal with them in that manner so they should not masquerade under
our present challenges. It is for this reason that we want to believe that if
we have a police barracks in Gashish where they will stay 24 hours, they would
be able to secure everybody and the people would live in peace and harmony as
they used to before now. But if IDPs are relocated immediately without adequate
security in place, those criminal elements (which some of them have been
arrested by law enforcement agents) would operate freely and at the end of the
day, it would look as it is an attack by a certain community against another. Safety is paramount and that is why the issue
of getting police to start positing its personnel there before the relocation
is also important.
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