As the hike in the fuel pump price was causing hardship to Nigerlites, the Niger State House of Assembly adopted a motion calling on Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago to reduce the working days of civil servants in the state.
The plenary session got heated when Hon. Umar Nasiru, representing Paikoro Constituency, moved the motion on matters of urgent public importance, calling on the Executive Governor of Niger State to reduce the number of working days and reduce the hardship suffered by the civil servants.
Hon. Nasiru said that the excessive hardship being experienced as a result of the removal of fuel subsidies has necessitated his call on the governor to reduce working days for civil servants so that they use other days to work at home for their offices.
According to him, "Section 17 subsection 2(c) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provided that government actions shall be humane, and to this end, I call on the Executive Arm to reduce the number of working days in Niger State from five to three days", he said.
He said that by so doing, it will reduce hardship not only suffered by civil servants but by entire states.
The legislator said that other states, such as Edo and Kwara, have already reduced their working days and that Niger State can also do likewise.
He said that Governor Umaru Bago is a generous and grassroots leader, and he believes that he would listen to their plea and grant it.
The legislators added that the N30, 000 minimum wage can no longer sustain civil servants, and as such, they added that the state government should put up measures to cushion the hardship of workers before the arrival of Federal Government palliatives.
Additional prayers made by the house were for the government to provide public transport for citizens at a subsidised rate, among others.
Also, a motion moved by the same Hon. Nasiru directed the Ministry of Education and the Niger State Universal Basic Education Board to immediately take measures that will avert the imminent collapse of the poorly constructed one-story building of UK Bello Memorial Primary School, Paiko, was adopted.
Two motions were stepped down: a motion calling on the executive arm of government to assess and make inquiries on the slow pace of ongoing construction of the General Hospital Tunga Magajiya and a motion calling on the executive arm of government to urgently intervene in the public primary and post-primary sectors of education in the state until committees were formed.
To avert the outbreak of diseases and natural disasters such as floods, the Niger State House of Assembly has urged the executive arm of government to reintroduce the monthly sanitation exercise.
During the order of the day at the 8th sitting of the assembly, the member representing Chanchaga Constituency, Hon. Mohammed Abubakar, raised a motion in that respect, which was seconded by the member representing Gbako, Hon. Yahaya Abubakar.
The member representing Chanchaga lamented over the spate of refuse dumps littering the state capital and other major cities, which he said was putting the state under serious health hazard and environmental disaster.
According to him, "unclean environments and flooding can trigger disease outbreaks such as lassa fever, cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid, and so on."
He added that Section 5 Subsection 1 of the Niger State Environmental Protection Agency (Amendment) Law 2011 provided for the Governor to declare any Saturday of the month as an Environmental Sanitation Day.
After deliberations on the motion, the House unanimously agreed on it, and it was adopted and affirmed.
However, another motion calling on the executive arm of government to put mechanisms in place for the reopening of schools closed as a result of insecurity was stepped down until the House Committees were formed.
The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, assured the members that the committees would be put in place next week.
Meanwhile, Hon. Muhammad Sani Idris, who moved the motion, said that with the various committees in place, it will give the motion a wider prospect, saying that he was worried over the number of children staying at home as a result of the school closures.
Hon. Sani Idris said that what was needed to reopen the schools was to have all relevant stakeholders involved in the process.
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