By Ochereome Nnanna
The Abia State Government recently announced its plans to compulsorily transfer non-indigenes in its civil service to their states of origin. That is the meaning of “back-loading” which, according to the Governor, Chief Theodore Orji, is not the same as “sacking” them.
Two reasons were adduced for this controversial step. Number one is the new national minimum wage, which jumped from N7,500 in most states to N18,000 as signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan in March this year. Before this 225 per cent jump, most states in the federation were already living above their means, with bloated, idle workforce that guzzled more than 70 per cent of the monthly incomes of all three tiers of government.

With the success of the pressure mounted on the President during election time by the Labour unions, many governors simply could not fathom ways out of the dilemma of getting the resources to pay.

Expectedly, the state branches of the unions put the bite on their respective state governments, and some threatened strike. One by one, most of the states have been yielding to the demands of Labour, though there are still some hard line states (such as Enugu) where the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Abdulwahid Omar, led a one-day picketing. The indications are that eventually all states will have to pay. The question is: How will they raise the money for this purpose?

As a way out, the Governors’ Forum had started canvassing the suspension of the Sovereign Wealth Fund, SWF, scheme. If they succeed in this campaign, it means that the Excess Crude Account, ECA, would be restored and more funds would be available for governments to spend.

They also called for the removal of the subsidy on petroleum products which, for this year, will gulp nearly one trillion naira. Neither the scrapping of the SWF nor withdrawal of the subsidy has been applauded by the public. In fact, not a single measure being contemplated by the various governments as cost-saving strategy has been found palatable.

As its own way out, the Abia State Government “looked inward”. According to its officials, there are more than 2,000 non-indigenous workers on the Abia State payroll, and most of these officers are in the teaching service. A great majority of them are in the Grade Level Ten and above cadres.

It is expected that with the completion of this “back-loading”, the state might free some N150 million per month and plough it into payment of the new minimum wage. However, non-indigenes in the tertiary institutions of learning are not affected.

The state government also points to another challenge. “Hundreds” of Abia indigenes, according to Governor Orji, have just been displaced by the violent activities of Boko Haram in the North. Many of them who are civil servants are looking up to the state government to rehabilitate them through employment.

Many people have expressed their unhappiness at the step the Abia State Government is about to take. Commentators on the social networks, human rights groups and even some concerned clerics are also perturbed that many families are going to be plunged into untold hardship and unemployment for no fault of theirs.

There is no guarantee that the states which are being asked to absorb the transferred workers(including those who are retired and on pension) will automatically do so. People are worried that this will worsen the indigene/settler social problem of this nation and may not augur well for the unity of purpose many canvass among Igbo people. It is also argued that a sudden discharge of thousands into the jobless market may result in heightened social vices.

We may not apprehend this problem correctly unless we locate it in the overall poor civic foundation upon which the Nigerian system stands. What is about to happen in Abia State is an inevitable fallout of a poor history of citizenship culture this nation has experienced from its beginnings.

The creation of the three regions by the British colonialists made Nigerians to see themselves as Northerners, Westerners and Easterners first before being Nigerians. The great carpet crossing event of 1952 in the Western Region House of Assembly destroyed nationalism and banished the greatest nationalist leader of the time, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, to become a regional leader.

The creation of states in 1967 destroyed the regions and their solidarities, thus taking people further away from each other. Apart from Lagos State, all the original 12 states have been split many times over. The former East Central State has been split into five states. Each time new states were created, civil servants always transferred their services to their new states of origin.

Abia State indigenes in Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra and Imo states were returned to Abia, especially during the reigns of Dr Sam Egwu in Ebonyi, Dr Chimaroke Nnamani in Enugu and Ikedi Ohakim in Imo. Some were even sent back to Abia after retiring to receive their pensions in a state they never worked for.

Ohakim only employed Imo State youth in his 10,000 jobs scheme. Abia State continued to hold on until now when the minimum wage and Boko Haram dilemmas forced it to do what others did years ago. The heat is on Abia because this has taken place at a time of mass democratisation of media reach, especially the social media.

We live in sad times in a sad country. The other day, the Commissioner for Women Affairs in Cross River State, Mrs Ekama Iwara, cracked that majority of harlots in her state were “non-indigenes”, especially ladies from Akwa Ibom State. And yet, the two states were once indigenes of one state.

What is taking place in the South East is a nationwide problem. It is easy to blame those who are latterly succumbing to this problem, but the primary blame is on those who laid the foundation that does not reinforce nationalism and citizenship but fuels extreme provincialism.

President Goodluck Jonathan has a plan to reverse this trend. According to feelers from the Presidency, he intends to sponsor a constitution amendment to ensure that any Nigerian who settles in a locality for six months will automatically qualify to become an indigene, with full rights to work, vote and be voted for. If the Bill is passed and supported by Nigerians it will right the wrong of civic foundations of the Nigerian state.

The question is: will Nigerians support it? Whole-heartedly?