Unpaid salaries: Do they know it’s Christmas?

In from Ali Smart . . .
After much anticipation, finally Christmas is here! But the question of the hour is do many people in Nigeria know today is Christmas?
Interestingly, the title of this piece, which was adopted from the popular lyrics written in 1984 by the duo of Bob Geldof and Midge Ure bearing the same title, in which the artistes lamented the plight of people suffering the effect of famine in Ethiopia, is an attempt to x-ray the living conditions of the hoi polloi.
Memories of the good old Christmas

Time was when Christmas was a period most people look forward to with a lot of enthusiasm and relish because of the fanfare that goes with it.
But the fun-associated with this special day is fast losing its appeal for many because of the parlous state of the economy, which has left little or nothing for people to live a decent life.

Bleak, bleak Christmas
Unlike the previous year, bleak Christmas and New Year celebrations await many workers in the country as most state governments, save for a few like Lagos, failed to pay salaries this December.

Most states owe workers months of salaries and pensions going into 2015 Yuletide.
About N300bn bailout recently arranged by the Federal Government for states to offset arrears of salaries and pensions failed to do the job.
For instance, Osun State Government still owes its workers three months salaries. The workers said the state government had been paying them half of their salaries since July, when they suspended their strike.

One of the workers said that labour unions were not satisfied with the ‘pay cut’ but agreed to it in order to ensure the resolution of the impasse.
Consultant to Osun State Government on Information, Mr. Sunday Akere, however, said the workers would be paid their October salaries.
In Oyo State, the last salary received by majority of the civil servants was for September 2015.

A worker in a government ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “The last salary that was paid was for September. We are being owed October and November salaries, but recently, the government began the payment of October salaries to council workers.

“I cannot confirm when the entire state workforce will get October salaries or if the state government will pay our salaries up to December by Christmas.”
In Kwara State, civil servants have not received their December salaries, but the situation is more pathetic for workers in state-owned tertiary institutions and local governments.

Investigation revealed that workers in the colleges of education are being owed about seven months while their counterparts in local government councils are owed about four months’ salaries.

It was also learnt that some principals and teachers in the state were being owed no less than four months’ salaries arrears.
Kogi State civil servants have not received their salaries since October this year, same for local government council workers.
Meanwhile, the council workers in the state have been collecting only a percentage of the full salaries ranging from 30 to 50 per cent, depending on the local government in question.

Imo State workers are being owed salary arrears of between three and eight months, depending on the ministry.
It was learnt that some parastatals in the state were being owed up to eight months in salary arrears.

A civil servant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said workers in the state were going through a hard time. To add salt to injury, Governor Rochas Okorocha reportedly said that salaries were mere privileges and not the right of workers, a statement, which drew scathing remarks by concerned indigenes.

Ekiti State Government has yet to pay November salaries to all civil servants in the state. Although some workers in the ministries have received their October salary, teachers who constitute the majority, have not received theirs.

Few days to the end of the year, civil servants are not sure they will be able to get their November and December salaries.
“What the government is doing is to use two months’ allocation to pay for one month, and we don’t know how long this would continue,” one civil servant said.
In Akwa Ibom State, the story is just the same, with workers lamenting exasperatedly that government is yet to pay its workers’ December salaries.

Read also: States’ unpaid salaries hit N110bn

A worker at the Ministry of Finance told our correspondent that inasmuch as the state did not owe workers’ salaries for previous months; it had yet to pay for December.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the recent ruling by an Appeal Court, which nullified the last governorship election in the state, had made the fate of workers more precarious.

The source said, with the judgement, no one was sure of when December salaries would be paid to workers.
Also, civil servants in Ogun State had yet to get their December salaries as of Friday.

Some of them, who spoke with Ripples Nigeria on condition of anonymity, expressed their dismay, saying the delay was becoming worrisome.
They said it was getting too late for them to shop for the Yuletide.

Findings in Enugu showed that workers had also yet to receive their December salaries by Friday.

In Niger State, workers had also yet to get their December salaries but the Senior Special Adviser to the governor on media, Mr. Jide Orintunsin, assured that the salaries would be paid before Christmas.

He said, “Our government has a cordial relationship with the organised labour in the state; we do not have problem with salaries.”

In Delta State, workers are owed two months’ salaries by the administration of Ifeanyi Okowa, leaving many of them groaning under serious hardship. The Special Adviser on Labour matters to the governor, Mr. Mike Okeme, said the unpaid salaries were informed by the biometric exercise for civil servants.

He said this became necessary to enable the state government reduce the overbearing wage bill in the last few years.
Okeme disclosed that the state’s monthly wage bill is between N7.6bn and N8.2bn.

Majority of civil servants in Cross River State have been paid their December salaries since the middle of the month, but the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Cross River University of Technology, Dr. Stephen Ochang, said lecturers had yet to receive theirs.

Lagos State is also one of the few states that have paid its civil servants’ December salaries, and it did so in addition to 15 per cent bonus.

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As of June 2015, the Nigeria Labour Congress said 23 out of the 36 states of the federation owe workers salaries.
The report of the NLC Task Force on employees salary arrears across the country showed that the debtor states include Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Ekiti, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers and Zamfara, as many of them owe their employees salary arrears of at least six months.

According to the report, while some of the states had paid salaries of workers up to date, some owed arrears of pensions running into months. The states owing salaries or pensions are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Cross Rivers, Ekiti, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, and Kogi.
Others are Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers and Zamfara states.

Apparently lamenting what he described as the dwindling fortunes of Nigerians, specially this yuletide, a human rights lawyer, Barr. Ojeme Francis, said there was need to make sure government at all levels sign a bond of sorts to fulfill the Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution, under the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, Section (2) subsection (b) which states that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.

“It is the duty of the government as enshrined in subsection (a) of the second Schedule to harness the resources of the nation and promote national prosperity and an efficient, dynamic and self-reliant economy as well as control the national economy in such manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity,” he emphasised.

Expatiating, the activist said it is high time the citizenry girds up its loins and stop being docile, insisting that it is the docility of the generality of the masses that has enabled the ruling class to continue to lord it over the rest of the citizenry.

He proposed, that starting from next year, Nigerians need to begin a movement that would ensure that leaders are put on their toes, by no longer tolerating excuses. Citizens he enthused, must demand from the ruling class their fundamental rights.
#Bringbackourchristmas#

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