…pegs minimum pension at N32, 000
By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi
Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed has expressed confidence that the N30 billion new GRA project in Bauchi which has not been captured by the 2025 budget, would now be successfully undertaken, courtesy of extra resources the state so far received during the budget period.
“We need to bring up our budget initiatives to go into procurement, we now have enough resources to do them, such as the rehabilitation of the Specialist Hospital in Bauchi with N20b, even the new GRA project which is gulping about N30b which was not fairy captured in terms of cash flow, but now we have enough resources to do it”.
Declaring open the routine State Executive Council meeting in Bauchi Wednesday, the Governor said that with extra resources, the state government would also execute some policy thrust such as managing the state forests, education, agriculture and multilateral relationship with the outside world.
He asserted, “Ours is a continuous work. Yes we are in the second period of our tenure, but certainly we are working as if we are just starting, because it has given us alot of assignments and all of us are passionate to see that we leave legacies and landmarks”.
The Governor while thanking the council members for cooperating with each other, said however that there is still room for improvement, stressing “We need to improve upon what we are doing, even if we don’t get frusturated that sometimes nobody acknowledges what we are doing, God In His Infinite mercy acknowledges it”.
“And definitely we are doing well in terms of where we want to go, only that our expectations, especially me as your humble leader is so high in terms of making sure that we covered all the grounds that we have seen are dotted with alot of gaps and limitations”.
Governor Bala disclosed that the 2025 budget has as of June recorded a remarkable budget performance of over 70 percent, resulting from revenue generation exceeding initial projections, thereby signaling a robust fiscal outlook and a promising economic future for the state.
He explained that the State Executive Council (SEC) in a recently convened extraordinary session, conducted a comprehensive review of the 2025 budget performance and ongoing development initiatives aimed at improving the well-being of Bauchi residents.
Mohammed emphasized the importance of strict budgetary discipline and prudent financial management in achieving the state’s development goals, saying the government is actively pursuing strategic partnerships with international development agencies to leverage additional resources and technical expertise to accelerate key projects.
According to him, the impressive budget performance and focused development agenda underscore the state government’s unwavering commitment to delivering tangible improvements and fostering sustainable growth for its citizens.
He said, “I’m glad not being that we have exceeded our collective expectation as a council in terms of budget performance for the year by reaching over seventy percent of the budget performance”, revealing that the state has received more revenues than it budgeted for this year.
Mohammed therefore expressed the need for the council members to meet and capture all the initiatives, projects and programmes that they will be taking before the year runs out with the extra resources the government received within and outside the state within the period under review.
The Governor added, “This is the most important highlight of what we are doing and we are glad even the international community is noting our capacity to plans and executions, and of course the visibility of doing these”.
He told the council members, “This is the kind of things that I always say that it is not the amount of money that we take, but how well we are able to do it. It is not me, it is all of you. And you know I sounded some cautions to you months ago that we needed to bring up our budget initiatives for us to go into procurement”.
Meanwhile, the Bauchi State Executive Council has approved a minimum pension wage of N32, 000 for all retirees who served under the services of the state civil service to improve their well-beings.
The State Head of Service, Barrister Sani Umar Disina disclosed the council’s approval at its post-executive meeting, where he attributed the pension increment to the increase in their minimum already approved by the federal government.
He said, “Today, the Executive Council has considered a submission having to do with the increase in the pensions of our state retired civil servants. This was as a result of the increase in their national minimum wage and the minimum pensions increase approved by the federal government”.
Barrister Sani Disina explained that pension is on the Exclusive List, but the states are also enjoined to join whenever legislation in that respect is passed by the National Assembly, saying the
requirement of the state’s operational guidelines and the law is that pension should be reviewed together with the minimum wage.
While recalling that it’s so many long years back since pension was reviewed in the state, disclosed that the State Executive Council has approved the implementation of minimum pension in the state from N12, 000 to N32, 000, an increase of more than N19, 000 to the state pensioners
Barrister Disina who noted that even the amount Bauchi state is paying before this increment is not being implemented in most states of the federation, said “This gesture that has just been approved, I was told by the pensioners themselves, it’s only a handful of states, not more than four throughout the country that have approved the implementation of N32, 000 minimum pension”.
The council’s post press briefing was held by four of its members and chaired by the commissioner for information and communication, Usman Shehu Usman, including their Special Duties and Rural Development counterpart, Hon. Faruk Mustapha who said that he presented a memo for additional work on the 30.3km Chara-Chara —-Rogo-Magwanshi rural road in the state.
Hon Faruk Mustapha attributed the additional work on the road to the last some year’s washed out along Azare —-Jama’are road which, he stated, created problems to the surrounding communities as a result of climate resilience.
He explained, “Water that passed through that road went as far as 27km of the road construction. Historically, over a 100 years, the place had been a water loaded area, so since last year that place has been full with water to the that locals over there are fishing because the flooded water is now about 12 months in the affected place”.
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