15 perm secs quit in Kano

Malam Ibrahim Shekarau

Ten days before Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso resumes as governor of Kano State, fifteen permanent secretaries in the state civil service including Alhaji Dahiru Shekarau of the Science and Technology Ministry, elder brother of the outgoing governor Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, have tendered their letters to the state Head of Service to retire from service, Daily Trust learnt in Kano yesterday. Also quitting at month’s end is Alhaji Sabo Abdurrahman of the all important Water Resources Ministry, under whose watch the Shekarau administration spent billions of naira to execute gigantic water contracts. Dahiru Shekarau and Sabo Abdurrahman are among the most powerful government figures in Kano civil service during the Shekarau era.

Of the 15 permanent secretaries reported to have signified their intension to quit, 12 have already forwarded their resignation letters to the Head of Service, Daily Trust learnt.

Competent government sources told Daily Trust that the decision of the top civil servants to resign followed the victory of Engineer Rabiu Kwankwaso in the April 16 governorship election in Kano. Their fear, according to the source, was that they might either be demoted or sacked out rightly because of their open political partisanship.

Governor Ibrahim Shekarau’s media aide Sule Ya’u Sule confirmed the exodus of the senior public servants but was not sure of the total number who are resigning from service.  Most of the permanent secretaries were appointed by the outgoing governor. PDP members allege that some of the appointments were on the basis of patronage or personal closeness to the Shekarau government.

It was gathered that since the civil service rules allow for either three months in lieu of notice before resignation or payment of three months’ salary to proceed instantly for those who served pensionable years, those top government officials have mostly opted to choose the latter by giving three months’ salary which is not less than N1 million per person.

Daily Trust also learnt that another dilemma for the permanent secretaries is whether or not the state ministry of finance can pay up their severance gratuity and service gratuity amounting to close to N15 million for each one of them.

However, the governor-elect Rabiu Kwankwaso has been allaying the fears since his victory, saying his administration would not witch-hunt public servants because of their perceived partisanship in last elections. He said his government will carry everybody along in the discharge of its responsibilities.

It will be recalled that in 2003 when Kwankwaso lost to Shekarau, a similar fate engulfed six permanent secretaries whose loyalty to the Shekarau administration was in doubt. They were therefore given the option of either to remain in service but revert to the rank of directors or proceed on premature retirement.

Three of them, it was gathered, accepted demotion to directors while the other three proceeded on premature retirement.

Even though efforts to get the state Head of Service to confirm the development proved abortive, a highly credible source in the office of the head of service confirmed that permanent secretaries in the state have been forwarding their resignation letters since the announcement of April governorship election results in the state. The source also said their request had been graciously granted.

Government spokesperson Sule Ya’u Sule said even though he was not certain about the number of the permanent secretaries resigning, a lot of civil servants in the state would rather resign during the present administration given Shekarau’s good pension policy in Kano.

“I know a lot of senior civil servants will resign even prematurely for fear that they may not be paid their service gratuity in good time if they leave service during the incoming administration,” Sule said.

Tension is high between the outgoing and the incoming governments in Kano because Kwankwaso was defeated by Shekarau in the 2003 elections. In the years that followed, Kwankwaso was probed by the Shekarau regime and indicted by a judicial commission of inquiry, which he rejected and fought all the way through the courts.