By Yari Kumchi
Except if the Paris Club Refund becomes a continuous exercise, the government of the day has set a precedence that may be its castration. It may find it difficult to pay salaries in the near future, as banks may not be too keen to lend for the exercise anymore, knowing that government is not anticipating any further refunds.
Note that the Paris and the Bail-out funds have put the government in the good books of banks as good borrower.
But the wise thing for the present Government is to learn from the encounter of the previous government with civil servants in Plateau state.
In 2007 when Jang, first came in as governor, salaries were being owed by as much as 13 to 18 months in some LGAs like Mangu, Bassa etc, Primary School Teachers were almost forgotten completely.
But within a period of 8 months, the administration cleared all outstanding salaries, allowances pensions and all other outstanding claims.
He could pay as much as 4 months salaries within 3 days.
For instance, on Monday, an alert for the month of July would ring. Tuesday, alert for August would ring. 11 am on Wednesday, alert for September would ring and 8pm of the same Wednesday, alert for October will ring.
I remember one woman said after receiving one of such alerts; “Haba! Dara ya dame mu da alert, badama mu bar chaji a waya, ya kashe mana phone battries da alert”
This was the trend till all outstanding salary arrears and other claims were cleared.
I’m not singing a Jang tune, as I’m not such a person. I’m just replaying history as it was played. This is what ACTUALLY transpired, you like him (Jang), you dont like him, he accomplished this and all the people, I mean a-l-l, including non civil servants appreciated this feat.
That was not all oh, after salary arrears were completely cleared, a culture of paying salaries on the 25th day of every month became effective immediately
Civil servants were happy, families were happy and the government was celebrated. Governor Jang suddenly became “The Man of the People”. The term “Berom Agenda” found its way out of the plateau vocabularies book on its own.
But towards the end of 2011, when the State’s federal allocation began to nose dive and government could no longer meet its obligations to workers as at when due, hell was let loose instantly.
The hitherto “The People’s governor” became “The Useless Old Man, the vision less and ethnic egoist”.
Phrases like “We never see Fly-Over before?, na road we go chop?” , ostensibly in reference to the Good Luck Ebele Jonathan’s bridge at Gada Biyu and the networks of roads under construction by the Governor then.
The leadership of the Plateau State Chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), with the full support of the the workers declared war against the government of Jonah David Jang.
Dame Pauline Tallen, deputy governor and Labour Party candidate for the Plateau State gubernatorial elections in 201, took advantage of the situation by encouraging the workers. She was rewarded with over 300,000 votes in that election.
The dilemma for the present administration is that while the ALERTS MUST CONTINUE, the source, (Paris Club Refund) is coming to a landing while 2019 is catching up.
Unfortunately also, the propensity to continue to borrow from the banks may begin to deem for lack of clear indicators that Simon Lalong will return as Governor in 2019. Besides, it will be unwise for the Governor to indulge in what he rightly or wrongly accused Jonah Jang of; (pushing the state in a debt of over Two Hundred Billion naira in 8 years, though Jonah Jang insists the figure is Eighty One billion Naira only, and went on to challenge the APC government to proof otherwise, which they are yet to, and he is not in jail, nor have EFCC visited him to that effect)
The import of this scenario is that, it is risky for a rider on the back of any Tiger’s whose bread is getting exhausted to continue on the ride, for as soon as the bread supply is exhausted, the Tiger will remember that the rider can also be a delicious meal.
The government must know that a worker will always be a worker and the language he understands fluently is always be the Alert language.
The much taunted change can only be synonymous with three things to continually makes sense to the worker;
No1 – Alert. No 2, Alert.
No 3, Alert.
Nothing, absolutely nothing else can change this.
They will swear they have never heard the term Paris Club Refund and how it was used to bless them. The government can even be blamed for not saving part of the Bail Out Funds for rainy days like some of the governors did.
