The Niger State government has expressed its commitment to the welfare and prompt payment of Salaries of local government staff in the state.
The state government also promised to ensure the functionality of all agencies under the ministry for local government, community development and Chieftancy affairs to fast track the transformation and development of the local government councils in the state.
The newly sworn in Commissioner for Local Government, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Mu’azu Hamidu Jantabo stated this in Minna on Monday when he under took a familiarisation tour of all the agencies under the Ministry, including the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the local government service commission.
He indicated that aside staff welfare and prompt payment of Salaries of local government staff, all other issues affecting smooth running of local government administration in the state will be given the desired priority.
The Commissioner pointed out that the essence of his familiarisation visit which is coming barely one week after taking over the affairs of the Ministry was to acquaint himself with the challenges being faced by the agencies and to enhance the relationship between the Ministry and the agencies for the overall benefits of the people, especially at the grass roots.
Hon. Jantabo assured that the challenges will be addressed as quickly as possible, but however warned that the era of allocating money to agencies without positive impact is over.
He added that “the Ministry will ensure constant supervision of the activities of every agency under my watch”.
According to him, “The essence of the visit is to identify agencies or institutions that are strategic to our operations to further enhance the already existing relationships.
“I’ve been a council chairman for four year’s and I know areas where to experience conflicts, so we want to avoid such conflicts this time around”. he stated.
The Chairman Nigeria Labour Congress Comrade Idris Lafene while welcoming the commissioner, said some of the challenges the Labour Union is having with the ministry include failure to implement the consequential adjustment of Minimum wage, non payment of Salary arrears and lack of promotion for civil servants at the local government councils.