By Khalid Idris Doya
The Bauchi state government has expressed worrisome over what it described as ‘nonchalant’ attitude of state commissioners and other top functionaries in attending official functions even when the Governor Bala Mohammed is in attendance.
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Barrister Kashim Ibrahim Mohammed expressed the displeasure at a three-day sensitization workshop for top government brass in Bauchi Wednesday.
The SSG told the workshop which is principally for commissioners, special advisers, permanent secretaries and other top government officials that Governor Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir has always expressed his displeasure at this attitude which, he argued, must be checked accordingly.
Barrister Kassim Mohammed frowned, “It is disheartening that when I looked at the seat reserved for the commissioners, I could only count eight of them out of the twenty-four commissioners we have in the state.”
“This is not good, the programme is meant for them and they are not here. Anyway, let their colleagues who are here call those who are not here to make it here,” Kassim added.
He informed the Head of Civil Service to direct the Permanent Secretary, Establishment Matters to call each one of workshop participants on his or her mobile phone number to attend this very important event.
The SSG stated, “We will be here tomorrow and the day after the programme so that we can have a comprehensive list of those who will be here and not so that we can present it to His Excellency”.
Kassim recalled that he had a lengthy discussion with Governor Bala Mohammed late Tuesday where he also talked about this attitude of top government officials not attending programmes at all and with no justifiable reasons.
He pointed out that the Kaura-led administration has prioritized training and retraining of public officers in the service in order to have the best results in governance.
According to him, both civil and public servants must be up and doing in order to achieve set objectives, and called on the participants to pay attention to the papers that will be presented at the workshop.
The SSG declared the workshop opened with assurance that everything discussed will be transmitted to the Governor for necessary action with the aim of improving service delivery to the people of the state.
Also speaking, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Dr Aminu Hassan Gamawa has berated the commissioners for their lackadaisical attitude towards attending functions, a development he said was not speaking well for the service.
The CoS stressed the importance of attending organized public functions as, according to him, it will afford them the opportunity to know the current happenings and how to proffer solutions to them.
He then urged those that were present as of the time of the opening ceremony of the programme to make it a point of duty to remind those who were not there the need to attend the programme which was organized for them.
In his opening remarks, the Head of Civil Service of the State, Yahuza Adamu Haruna stated that the workshop was necessitated by the fallout from the retreat held last year with the aim of improving service delivery in governance.
He added, “Some time last year during our retreat, the Governor in consultation with the lead Consultant, and in order to move the state forward found, it became necessary to have this capacity building workshop and remind you of the milestone we have reached so far.”
Alh. Aminu Gamawa further that, “It is an opportunity for us to appraise ourselves and see how we can progress and proffer solutions to our problems in order to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people of the state generally.”
