The Niger State Head of Service, Salisu Abubakar, has explained why Governor Mohammed Bago recently increased the number of ministries from 23 to 30.
Abubakar said it was aimed at recruiting more people into the civil service and also absorbing casual workers, some of whom he noted had been in that position for 20 years.
The HoS made this known while speaking at the handing and taking over ceremony of the new permanent secretaries of the ministries of Work and Infrastructural Development, Hassan Etsu, and Power and Renewable Energy, Lucky Barau.
He said over the years he had been calling for the recruitment of more people and the absorption of casual workers into the civil service, and was happy that the governor created the opportunity.
Abubakar stated, “We have 30 ministries now from 23. It’s part of what gives me joy because it is expanding opportunities for civil servants. Before now, I was opportune to be in a position to advise the previous government to do recruitment. And anytime we move for recruitment, they will ask us to show them the source of funding. I’m just telling you the reason why salaries were moved to the Head of Service and later it was moved to the Ministry of Science and Technology.
“When we made that submission that there’s a need for recruitment in the service, they said we should show them where to get the money for it. When we did the exercise, they said we should identify the BVN against salaries, but what happened at the end of the day, only 100 related officers were employed, while 3,000 political appointees were employed; that was what happened. Then the second time I was in tertiary, there was a need for recruitment in tertiary and they said we must show evidence where that money will come from. That was how salary now moved from Head of Service to meet us in tertiary. We did the same exercise; we did a lot of savings and yet civil servants were not employed.
“So, with the coming of the new sheriff, we presented all these issues to him and he said if we want posterity to judge us right actually, we must recruit because as it is now, the service that is supposed to be a pyramid is now becoming an inverted pyramid.
“Now, we don’t have officers on level 6, level 7, level 8, level 9, even level 10 are very few. We are trying to do a census on how to get this thing right and we said the best way to go about it is to create newer ministries, which our boss approved. Now, we have the Ministry of Energy and Power; we have the Ministry of Primary Healthcare, Ministry of Nomadic and Pastoral Affairs, Ministry of Humanitarian and Disaster Management and we have the Ministry for Small, Medium and Vocational Skills Development and Entrepreneurship.
“The essence of these ministries is to create space for new recruitment. We have 434 directors in the ministries. Now, if you take a census of 30 ministries with a minimum of six directors in each ministry, 212 deputy directors and 24 assistant directors in each ministry, that is how we will move so that the pyramid will keep on expanding below. So, you can see that opportunities are being created.”
