KANO State governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has repealed what the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) described as “Obnoxious Labour Law” that forcefully terminates the employment of local government workers after spending eight years on grade levels 14 and 15.
Governor Ganduje signed the bill which repealed the law before the NULGE President, Mr Ibrahim Khaleel, who led the national executive of the union and its members from the North-West Zone on a nationwide protest rally in Kano State.
Under the law, Kano State Retirement and Pension Act, a local government employee who had served on the level 14 or 15 for eight years would be compulsorily retired. The law was enacted by the ex-governor, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwanso.
It will be recalled that NULGE fought without success to ensure that the implementation of the Retirement and Pension Act was repealed during the tenure of Kwankwanso.
Khaleel, while addressing the governor and presenting the position of NULGE on the local government autonomy; decried the Act and expressed NULGE’s opposition to it.
Governor Ganduje, however, told the NULGE president and its members that his administration had worked on the act and had repealed it.
The governor said he deliberately delayed the signing of the new bill that repealed the act when he learned that the NULGE president would come for a rally in Kano so that the bill would be signed in his presence.
“I have heard about the tenure system, we have already repealed that law and that is why I said I will sign the law in your presence. Please Commissioner of Justice, bring the bill,” Ganduje said before assenting the bill.
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