A public affairs analyst, Kefas Sule, has urged the outgoing Governor of Taraba State, Darius Dickson Ishaku, to be focused on delivering all the goods that he can do for the state.
He urged Ishaku to make peace with all and avoid distractions from delivering on his remaining goals with the little time he has left in office.
Sule, who stated this on Tuesday in an open letter to the governor, was reacting to a press statement recently issued by the governor through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Bala Dan Abu, claiming that his administration is not owing any group of workers in the state monthly salaries.
The claim, which has continued to ignite dust in the state, was observed to have compelled the organised labour led by the NLC state chairman, Peter Jediel, to debunk the claims stating that “local government workers are owed for six months, primary school teachers four months while over 1,000 pensioners are not on payroll.”
Sule said, “I recommend that you convene a town hall meeting with the local government workers, primary school’s teachers, staff of the state University(TSU) and your appointees so that everyone can come forward with the evidence of payment or the lack of it for the truth to be established.”
Sule was of the view that “the statement gives an unsuspecting reader the impression that your administration is already in contention with an administration that is yet to take off should this degenerate into a war of words, yours would be perceived as an aggressor, that made a mountain out of a molehill just to settle a score.
“Repeating the line about your government not owing salaries over and over, again and again does not add to the merit of the claim, it rather detracts from the substance of the argument.”
The analyst who also observed that “some of those working with Ishaku have not been telling him “the truth” said “many things have been blocked from reaching you or misrepresented to you. I believe this issue of salaries is one of them.”
In the said statement which has continued to raise dust, Ishaku, claimed that his administration “never toyed with the welfare of workers in its eight years of stewardship in the state”, adding that “it had consistently paid their salaries since it assumed office in 2015, most of the time before the end of every month.”