The Periscope Global Editorial
It was during the 2019 electioneering atmosphere that was to send, even if through the window, the sitting governor Bindow out of Dougirei Hill that the present Adamawa state governor, Rt Hon Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri with the then “ATM” as a.k.a, was heard assuring the citizenry, more specifically, the public servants with the state that Adamawa has got money sufficient to foot the minimum wage bills at N32000, when the federal government pegged N30,000 as the general minimum wage.
The supporters hailed Fintiri as a man of prompt-salary-payment-action, hence the nickname ATM, when he was serving in his capacity as acting governor of the state, following what would, by the court of law, be declared unlawful impeachment of the former governor Murtala Hanmmanyero Nyako, a.k.a Baba Maimangoro the courageous Admiral and compassionate leader, who would take a self-life-risk in defence of the led; the delight of the citizenry; an elder statesman with reigning popularity enough to provide compass for what and who is next; from “O Jippa Tan” to…
The literary critic, Yunusa Abubakar could coin the injustice mated to Nyako and the state as a “legislative coup against the executive”.
There was, said to be a civil servants’ jubilation following the payments of two months outstanding salaries after the impeachment, without considering the damage it would eventually impact on the hundreds of millions of naira worth skills acquisition training programmes initiated and implemented by the Nyako led government for which the citizenry had started reaping the benefits and that which Dangote group of companies among others have duly acknowledged; unconscious also of the drawbacks the impeachment would cause on and to the education in the state – with the sacking of the Nyako employed – and the suspension of the establishment of Law Faculty in the Adamawa State University, ADSU Mubi, for which close to N2 billion was not only earmarked but provided for the take off.
The skills acquisition centres established by Nyako would not be reopened after the impeachment. ADSU Mubi would have been producing lawyers rather than the present lamentation.
With the N32,000 as minimum wage, it would have meant that the workers with Adamawa state government would have earned more than the federal government workers whose minimum wage stands at N30,000. Would there have been any need for state citizens seeking federal government jobs.
This however turned out not to be translated to the projection with the implementation of consequential adjustment rather than the N32000 full-minimum-wage said to have affected some categories of the workforce, while those with the primary healthcare and local government still remain in the pre N32,000 minimum wage as lamented.
The lamentation equally extended to the sacked Nyako/Bindow employed civil servants after the 2019 election. The group gave the number at 10,000 even though the state government feelers denied the number, arguing that it was grossly exaggerated.
The point however is that there are indeed the “sacked workers” who challenged the Fintiri led government before God by means of Qunut prayers and before the law for redress, as was reported.
From 2019, the state is heading to the 2023 electioneering atmosphere, how convincing would the N32,000 Fintiri-minimum-wage be factored in the bid for a reelection? Faith, Faust faithful would faithfully put forward, devoid fraud that only time would tell.
