No fewer than 4,000 public servants, the majority in the directorate cadre of Kano State civil service, have been directed to proceed on compulsory retirement.

The decision follows the abolition of the 5-year service elongation policy introduced by the immediate past administration into the civil service.

Dr Abdullah Umar Ganduje’s administration had obstructed the standard rule of 35 years of service and/or 60 years of age for workers’ retirement by adding 5 years for anyone who wished to remain in office after the expiration of time.

The Ganduje administration was said to have broken the civil service retirement rule to ease the cumulative burden of gratuity to the increasing number of fresh retirees that the government found difficult to settle. However, the policy remained a stumbling block for the government to create employment opportunities.

Briefing journalists on Wednesday, the state Head of Service, Abdullahi Musa, revealed that after diligent screening, about 4,000 civil servants were found enjoying the Ganduje policy privilege.

The Head of Service maintained that after the reversal of the pension law, the said number of workers have been directed to submit their retirement letters before the end of September.

He said, “After the abrogation of the Ganduje’s Pension law, we established a Senior Civil Servants Committee which investigated the actual number of persons affected by the law.

“After due diligence, the committee identified 4,000 persons affected and supposed to go by 1st December 2024, which means at the end of this month, September, they would submit their retirement notices.

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“But out of the lenience of the Government, they were given a three-month usual retirement window to submit their retirement notices and prepare for full retirement by December 2024.”

The Head of Service further explained that the exit of the civil servants will create large employment opportunities as the government has fully prepared to fill the vacuum with fresh workers.

He said, “Don’t forget that at the end of former Governor Ganduje’s administration, he employed 13,000 civil servants, and when this Government came into power, in Governor Abba Kabir’s mercy and good heart, he didn’t sack them.

“We rather screened the 13,000 civil servants and out of which we fully engaged 10,000 back to service on a permanent and pensionable basis, while the remaining 3,000 are those who were found wanting and they were sacked.

“Those 3,000 among them were NYSC members, undergraduates who are still in school, underage persons of 13 years and below, and some overage persons; these are the persons that we eased out from the 13,000 civil servants employed lately by Ganduje.”

Abdullahi Musa further explained that the act of truancy among civil servants has been taken care of, as workers now resume offices by the normal hours of 8 am.