At a time in Kaduna we had to sack 12,000 idle workers – Retired HoS Alhaji Balarabe Yakubu

What was growing up like for you?I am Alhaji Habibu Balarabe Yakubu. Both my parents were indigenes of Zaria. I was born in Zaria City. I attended Kufar Kuyan-Bana Primary School and the Alhudahuda College from 1966 to 1971 and I did my Higher School Certificate at Barewa College. I went to Ahmadu Bello University,  […]

What was growing up like for you?
I am Alhaji Habibu Balarabe Yakubu. Both my parents were indigenes of Zaria. I was born in Zaria City. I attended Kufar Kuyan-Bana Primary School and the Alhudahuda College from 1966 to 1971 and I did my Higher School Certificate at Barewa College. I went to Ahmadu Bello University,  Congo Campus and studied for a Diploma in Accounting in 1974.  Later I went to England to study Accountancy and Business Administration between 1978 and 1981.
I started working with Ahmadu Bello University as Accounting Assistant from 1974 to 1977 and in April 1977 I joined Kaduna State Service as Auditor Grade II.  In December 1983, I joined the National Teachers Institute, NTI, Riga-chikun and worked there for seven years as head of the Internal Audit and then as acting financial controller. Then, fate had its way as the then Auditor General,  Alhaji Dalhatu Bello, insisted that I should return to Kaduna State civil service, arguing that my services were needed. He wanted professionals who had joined the federal civil service to return to the state.
I returned to the state service as auditor general in 1991. In 1994 I was made the first Executive Chairman of Kaduna State Board of Internal Revenue. The former designations were either Permanent Secretary, or Director, or Commissioner for Revenue.In July 1996, I was appointed Auditor-General for Local Governments. I was later reassigned as Director-General Ministry of Finance. During the late General Sani Abacha’s regime, I worked with the disciplined Military Administrators of Kaduna State, General Lawal Jafaru Isa and Colonel Hamid Ali. The latter appointed me as Acting Commissioner and Director-General Ministry of Finance. Some  of my friends used to call me “Super Perm Sec”.
When General Abacha died and General Abdussalami  Abubakar took over, Colonel Umar Faruk Ahmed was sworn-in and I retired in October of 1998. But elders mounted pressure on me to withdraw the retirement letter, which I did.  In 1999, the military handed over power to civilians and Governor Ahmad Makarfi posted me to the Board of Internal Revenue. He told me that he inherited an empty treasury and urged me to raise the income. I served for two and half years there. I was then posted to Local Government Pension Service Board as Executive Secretary and later as Permanent Secretary. However, when my schoolmate, friend and boss, Architect Namadi Sambo, was sworn in as governor in 2007, he posted me as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry for Local Government and later, in 2009, he appointed me as Head of Service, from where I voluntarily retired on May 2011.
I benefitted from the legacy of the late Sardauna’s northernisation policy. I am a fellow of the Institute of Cost and Management Accounting of Nigeria (ICMA), fellow of the Chattered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria  (CITN) and a Fellow of the Nigerian  Institute of Management (NIM), among others.
Why did you resign as Acting Commissioner and DG Finance under Colonel Ahmed?
Better leave some things in a nutshell, dead and buried. It was purely a matter of personal policy. An employee can sign, resign or withdraw his appointment and the employer can terminate any appointment. I enjoyed working with the military, specifically Jafar Isa and Hamid Ali.
Why didn’t like the administration of Colonel U.F. Ahmad?
Actually, I worked with him for only two months. It is not that I don’t like him. There were some fundamentals relating to policy issues. I was brought up in the audit line. When you are brought up in that line, you are groomed to respect rules and regulations. I was not comfortable with Colonel U.F Ahmed. The most honourable thing to do was to resign. We, Nigerians, are lacking that. If you don’t agree with an administration you resign.
Did you advise him?
No, no, no. He was not obeying laid down rules. There were some issues. I don’t like any conflict.
What was your experience as Finance Commissioner and substantive DG?
Combining the two was not easy as working with an incorruptible person like Colonel Hamid Ali, whose military police training entails discipline. It was not easy, but we succeeded in cleansing the service and that was the legacy I still cherish.
What was your reaction when Colonel Hamid Ali sacked striking doctors and thousands of civil servants when they grounded the state civil service?
Actually, it was not only doctors. There were upto 12,000 staff who were retired. It was really a controversial circumstance. What happened was that civil servants joined the strike. The case grew from civil service to non-civil service interest, which brought things to a standstill. The civil service was over bloated as, in a ministry, there were three drivers attached to one car. Or in one office, there would be three messengers, and particularly in the Local Governments, some officers don’t have office and tables to work on.I recall that Colonel Hamid Ali said he was posted to Kaduna by the late General Abacha with a special instruction to cleanse the system in readiness for the civilian administration, so that corrupt tendencies and redundancy would be history. The sacking reduced the personnel cost of the state government. From the statistics I have been reading on the revenue and expenditure of Kaduna State, upto sixty percent of the income is being spent on pensions, salaries and gratuity. That means it has gone back to square one, the period before the Colonel Hamid Ali cleansing exercise.
How much were you generating as Chairman of the Internal Revenue Board?
The board was generating N10 million monthly. I was the chairman of the board on two occasions. When I was there in 1994, it was a curative assignment and there was massive diversion of fund during the late Dabo Lere’s administration. And he was credited with the taking the bull by the horn with a committee on how to stop the massive diversion of public fund as it was running to hundreds of millions in 1992 to 1993. The corrupt staff was a syndicate involving some revenue staff, staff of some ministries and even some staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kaduna branch.
The chairman was an upright person – Alhaji Muhammadu Jibo. He submitted a report and the government issued a White Paper. Quite a number of the staff of revenue board where imprisoned and Governor Dabo Lere terminated or dismissed 238 staff of the Revenue Board.
When a coup sent Lere packing and Col J.L. Isa was advised to get an auditor with a vast experience within the office of the Auditor General to do the job, he called me and told me what he wanted, and I told him that I had no option. I carried out that job from 1994 to 1996.  I had a two-point in the term of reference. Use your audit background to recover the money, identify the culprits and close the loop holes.
How did you do that?
I did it through internal control. If it is lacking, the organization fails. Or playing by the rules, as if A will collect the tax from Peugeot, nobody will go there. You just work on schedule. When you collect cheques, issue a receipt to the payee, deposit the money in the bank that same day. I raised the income from N10 million to N33 million a month. And when I was posted there for the second time, I raised it to N200 million. I learnt that they are earning a billion naira monthly and want it to be two billion naira monthly.
How did you deal with the CBN staff?
The report of the Jibo commission indicted all those who were guilty, and the state government reported to the CBN headquarters. Some two or three staff members had their appointments terminated.
Was the controller involved?
No, he was not involved.If the internal control of an organization is weak, or not existing, that organization will collapse. I have no doubt about it. Unfortunately, that is the situation up till now. Those in charge are not bothered. And the pointer is when last did you hear the Auditor-General investigate something and actions taken against the victims in the states or at the federal level?
The order of the today is, do what you want and if you are lucky you won’t be caught. You can remember the case of a former Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun who diverted billions and was sent to six months in jail with a fine of N750,000.00. What of those pension thieves, governors being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) with billions and they are in the Senate?
Who were your school mates?
They are many – childhood, primary school, secondary and lots more. Vice President Namadi Sambo was my school mate at Kofar Kuyan-Bana Primary, then to Alhuda huda Secondary School, and later Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. I was in Congo campus and he was in Samaru campus. And we are still very good friends, even though he is my boss (laughter). Some of my friends are Muhammad Yusuf, Registrar NTI, Muhammad Sani Ladan, Executive Chairman of Kaduna State House of Assembly Service Commission, Muhammed Lawal Garba, a retiree of NNPC. I was the chairman of the Class of 1971-Forum of Alhuda huda since 2007. Ninety-one of us graduated and 51 are alive. We visited the Vice President recently.
How many years did you spend in service?
I served for 37 odd years. By law, I was to retire at the age of 35 in service. I worked with ABU before I joined the state civil service and I didn’t know that I can transfer my years of service then. That was how I served for 37 years. I started afresh with Kaduna State government and when I left I served 34 and half years. If you add the two and half years, it will be a total of 37 years. I was paid gratuity and pension based on my 34 years in government.
When did you start preparing for retirement?
I didn’t.
Why?
Retirement is like anything in life, if you want to open a business you start it in your mind and with a time limit. I did not formally have any written plan. But I have many in my mind. I wanted to be a consultant on management, revenue, pension and things like that. When the late Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa became governor, I was the Head of Service and when we concluded Namadi’s tenure in 2011 after he was made the Vice President, there was an election and Yakowa won. He later called me and said the Southern Kaduna caucus of the PDP said the formula in Kaduna was that during the time of Makarfi and Namadi, the governor and the Head of Service where from the same senatorial zone.He said the PDP caucus reminded him that the governor and the HOS should come from one zone while the Deputy and the SSG should come from the same or other zones. In short Southern Kaduna people wanted the HOS to be from that area. We were in good terms even when he was commissioner and I was the Chairman of Revenue Board.
I told him that it came at the right time, as I was tired of working. I told him I will submit my resignation letter tomorrow to him personally. I was supposed to give three months’ notice. I requested for three months unspent leave. Yakowa said he was my brother and there was nothing I would request that he would deny me, as far as he was in power.
After three months, Yakowa invited me to join a  committee he would chair to increase the revenue of Kaduna state. But the committee was in theory. It has never been dissolved, but its report has never seen the light of the day under this present administration. After Yakowas died, we never sat again.The blueprint was for the state to generate two billion a month. But I am not involved with this present administration. Even this present administration does not seem to be pursuing that. There are things I may not know.
Have you started the consultancy firm?
I wanted to start but the need doesn’t arise. But I am contented with the goodwill I have been enjoying. I tell you, goodwill is riches. I know a lot of people who have companies as chartered accountants who want me to be associated with them. I am an indirect consultant (general laughter).Whenever somebody approaches me for a consultancy service, I will invite the best firm to do the consultancy. I have been  living a simple lifestyle right from my childhood. I avoid problems.
Will you join politics?
I had been convinced to join politics. I am consulting with my associates. I feel guilty for not joining politics. I am being practical. If you are not in politics, you won’t be heard in this our present system, even if you are the best in your chosen field. We are wasting asset.I decided I must join politics. So many are just watching ‘sit down and look’. Even my children did not join politics because their Dad is not in politics. That is wrong.
 I am about to take a decision, but deciding which party to join is not easy. I served under the PDP for 15 years under the PDP, both I may not join the PDP. Civil servants don’t participate in politics. May God guide us to develop Kaduna State.
What is the difference between working under the military and the civilians?
The answer may put me in trouble.
Can you summarily explain?
Summarily, there is more discipline under the military than under the civilian. The military doesn’t allow irregularities as the stealing of billions of naira cannot occur under the military. Releasing convicts by the powers that be, to be free. The level of indiscipline in the civil service is a reflection of the society. I pray things will change because Nigeria cannot move forward with the way we do things right now. It is totally wrong. The society has no discipline.
As a former civil servant are you under the old or new scheme?
I am under the old scheme. I was part and parcel of the committee that drafted the law. People were given option. Even at that time people were given options. I was at the fore front in advancing the new scheme. I did not mean the new scheme is bad, but all the money stolen where money from the old pension scheme. Something is terribly wrong with the old scheme. I urged Kaduna State Government to copy the military by training retiring civil servants for two years before their retirement.
What is your word of advice for your friend Namadi Sambo?
There are two personalities involved, one of a friend and the other as my boss Vice President.
As a friend?
I want him, whether God will allow him to continue as Vice President or not, to reach out more to people who know him and respect him. I hear people saying your friend Sambo doesn’t want people around him; he doesn’t reach out. I want him to outreach, it will help a lot if he could spare more time.
What of an advice to your younger brother, Governor Mukhtar Yero?
He is doing well. But many people say they are not satisfied with the infrastructural development. His reactions and those of his lieutenants’ is that government does not have enough fund to execute projects. That may be true. I know he inherited huge debt. It is not enough, as  government has to devise  means of doing  what the people want, even if it means raising a new avenue for revenue generation.
When Colonel Hamid Ali was on board, he took a critical decision. Governor Yero needs to critically review the status of Kaduna vis-a-vis our earnings and then ‘cut our coat according to our clothes.’ My conviction is the civil service is still bloated with excess of the requirement, I am not advocating that people be retired like it was done before.
There are options. The information dissemination machinery of the state needs to improve upon as many people are not fully aware of the difficulty the government is facing. If you ask me the budget of the state, I don’t know.  I heard about two weeks ago that there was a supplementary budget of N3.4 billion was approved by the House of Assembly. People need to know what is the government getting and spending, what the problems the government is facing. How can Kaduna State government generate more money internally and get its correct allocation from the federal government?
Government should give the information to the Emirs, Chiefs and Commissioners to inform the people regarding running cost, pension, running cost and that there is nothing left for school, hospitals and so on. But this situation will not change until people start paying taxes. Ninety-five per cent of the people of Kaduna are tax evaders. The money earned by the state government is mainly from taxes by workers.