Any Chairman that can not pay 30, 000 minimum wage should resign-Gov. Lalong

Any Chairman that can not pay 30, 000 minimum wage should resign-Gov. Lalong 

Gov. Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau State has directed any Local Government Chairman who can not pay 30,000 minimum wage to its worker to resign.

The Governor made the disclosure at a stakeholders meeting which held at the Victoria Gowon multipurpose hall New Government House Little Rayfield Jos 

Gov. Lalong disclosed that he invited the stakeholders to rub minds on very important issues that border on the security and well-being of our people. He  want to thank them for honouring this call which again demonstrates their commitment to the progress of Plateau State.

He said " following the prolonged clamour for financial autonomy of the Local Government system nationwide, the matter was finally resolved. As a result, I approved that Local Government autonomy in Plateau State should be implemented immediately. 

Therefore, all funds belonging to that tier of Government go straight to them. It is therefore the duty of the Local Governments to negotiate the new minimum wage with their employees based on their capacity to pay. This is the same thing that happened at the Federal and State levels. 

Furthermore, the Governor equally register his displeasure and shocked, that despite his intervention to ensure that the matter was quickly resolved through a Technical Committee, the workers embarked on protests which caused hardship to other citizens. They have also called me unprintable names forgetting that I have a soft spot for workers. 

 

He also reveals that he do not need to repeat what inherited as their salary arrears for 8 months, unpaid “no-work-no pay”, promotions of over 20 years, among others when I took over. All these they seem to have forgotten because of politics. Let me again put it on record that I am not holding local government salaries and no one should therefore call me names.

Speaking over the second wave of the dreaded covid-19 pandemic, he said "as you may be aware, we are experiencing the second wave of the corona virus pandemic where there is a resurgence of cases across the nation including here on the Plateau.

As a result of this, we are recording more daily cases in the State than previously. Sadly, we are also recording increasing number of deaths that is very worrisome. In the past weeks, we have seen some prominent persons in Plateau State and indeed across Nigeria die from COVID-19.

Mostly we hear of the big names but do not get to hear of the others involving people that are less prominent. This should give us serious concern because it means that the situation is bigger than what we seem to know.

Later on, I will allow the Commissioner of Health and representatives of the team of medical practitioners at the theater of COVID-19 response in JUTH and other treatment centers to share with us their experiences at the treatment centers and bring us the reality.

The most worrisome point here is that despite this situation, most citizens appear to be careless and reluctant to observe the COVID-19 protocols. In fact, many have abandoned and refused to observe simple protocols of wearing face masks, maintaining social distance and washing hands regularly.

This worries me a lot because this recklessness is further exposing more people to the virus and then increasing the casualty figures. While we have no intention of imposing another lockdown to avoid further damage to the economy, some members of the public are not helping us. 

Governor Lalong also disclosed that he hope everyone knows that as a government, we cannot fold our arms to witness people dying over a situation that is largely preventable. I hope we shall see a change of attitude going forward as we resume more vigorous level of enforcement of all the protocols.

For those who are in denial and continue to misinform others that COVID-19 does not exist, I want to warn them to desist. I as the number one citizen of the State was a victim and God helped me to come out of it. I can tell you that it is not a joke and I do not wish even my enemies such experience.

That is why at the last State EXCO meeting, we decided to criminalize further denial of the disease in the State. In other words, if you deny the existence of the disease, keep your denial to yourself because if you are caught propagating it or instigating others to follow you, you will be arrested and prosecuted no matter how highly placed you might be.

Again, we have to re-strategize and embark on more education and sensitization particularly at the grassroots. The previous approach where we talk to stakeholders and expect them to take the message down seems to be less effective at the moment. Therefore, we are taking the message by directly engaging the people.

The Governor further directed the Commissioners and other senior government officials to go down and engage the people henceforth. We want to break the resistance and ensure that the people own the response. COVID-19 is a personal matter that affects people directly. They need to be involved. 

On the issue of vaccine, he said he have already heard some people peddling conspiracy theories. I want to say that I will be the first to take the vaccine whenever it is available in Plateau State. Let us be careful of promoting unsubstantiated rumors.

By the way, we are still hopeful that the drugs being developed by the Plateau State Medical Research Team which are currently undergoing clinical examination will pass the necessary approvals. This will also give us another option for prevention and treatment. At least, this is our own initiative and there is no conspiracy theory attached.

The next issue I want to address is the issue of security which as you know remains the first priority of our administration. We have continued to pay attention to the security of lives and property by adopting various measures to foster peaceful coexistence and also deal with crime and criminality.

Lalong also said he is aware of the incidences of kidnapping, cultism and other violent crimes in some parts of Plateau State. The Government is working hard with the security agencies and stakeholders to ensure that the ugly incidences are tackled. 

Last month, he signed the Anti-kidnapping, Land grabbing, Cultism and Violence-related matters bill passed by the State House of Assembly into law. By that law, anyone convicted of kidnapping in Plateau State will be sentenced to death while cultism and other violent crimes attract various terms of imprisonment. 

Also in December last year, we inaugurated 595 Community Police constables who were trained and deployed to the 17 Local Government Areas to assist law enforcement agencies, particularly the police in intelligence gathering and other security operations. Now that it has taken off, I expect to hear from you how best we can domesticate and own the initiative at the grassroots. 

19. Because security is a collective responsibility, I charge you to assist the Government sensitise and mobilise all citizens to always be security conscious and take measures to protect their vicinity against criminals. Apart from exposing them, they should also embrace techniques to provide the first line of alarm and defence before security agencies respond.

He said he have repeatedly said that he do not want to hear of any incidence of “unknown gunmen” terrorizing our people. We have to collaborate with the security agencies to ensure that we achieve this. They cannot do it alone. Now that we have community policing constables, we expect better security as we all support them to work.