By Yusuf Salihu Sansani, Jalingo
Taraba State Governor Dr. Agbu Kefas has dismissed claims that the state’s payroll includes “ghost workers,” saying instead that the administration has discovered employees who were not properly engaged.
Speaking while hosting journalists to lunch at the EXCO Chambers, TY Danjuma House, Jalingo, the governor said some names appear on paper but the persons do not exist, or their names appear and disappear from records. He added that such anomalies do not amount to ghost workers.
“I am convinced that there are workers who were not properly employed, but they are not ghosts. Some names appear on paper but the persons do not exist; others appear and disappear. When there is trouble you do not see them. I cannot eat anybody’s money.
“We want to pay those who are actually employed; we want things done properly and pensions cleared. That is the essence of the staff biometric verification exercise, because most of our resources were used paying salaries to people who were not properly employed or do not exist,” Kefas said.
On his administration’s free education policy, launched at the start of his tenure, Governor Kefas said available, though unreliable, data indicate there are about 3,000 primary and 500 secondary schools in the state.
He warned the government will not complete work on all these schools within his first term but vowed the programme will continue.
“My plan is to meet with headmasters and principals to take decisions. They must reactivate their Parent-Teacher Associations. I will release funds to teachers to work on the schools.
Parents, teachers and government must join hands: roofs that are dilapidated will be fixed, chairs provided, and new buildings constructed so that when the new ones are ready we can demolish the old ones,” he said.
The governor lamented the poor condition of many schools, describing some visits to crumbling facilities. “When I visited one school, in the parlour of the head teacher’s office there were only old, dusty books; when I entered the main office there was no window, it was off,” he said.
Kefas urged journalists to organise monitoring teams across the 16 local government areas to track projects funded by the state. “As you monitor the projects and we release funds, you will provide accountability.
We must break the jinx of stakeholders saying ‘take your own’, teachers take your own, so that I can rest,” he added.
Addressing criticisms about alleged non-performance by some political appointees, particularly commissioners, the governor characterised non-performance as often a matter of perception and attitude rather than outright failure.
He also warned against sabotage at public projects, citing vandalism at the Presidential Lodge renovation in Jalingo.
“Imagine, people working on the project vandalised the transformer there. I don’t want to be harsh; I want to give the benefit of the doubt. But if I have to act, those responsible will face the law,” he warned.
