The presidential directive to governors to pay civil servants’ salaries before Christmas may pit the states’ chief executive officers against organised labour. Reason: the balance of the Paris/London Club refund from which the governors are expected to settle the workers may be a far cry from what is required, especially in states owing huge arrears of salaries. Osagie Otabor, Odunayo Ogunmola, Nicholas Kalu, Mike Odiegwu, Rosemary Nwisi, Suleiman Adamu, Damisi Ojo, Ernest Nwokolo, Anthony Bassey, Adekunle Jimoh and Adesoji Adeniyi report that the local chapters of the workers’ unions look set to challenge their employers across the states.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to governors to settle workers’ salaries before Christmas may have widened the gulf between the states’ helmsmen and organised labour.
The directive was reportedly given on Monday after the President met with the governors at the State House in Abuja.
The President directed Finance Minister Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele to release the 50 per cent balance of the Paris/London Club refund to enable the states carry out his directive.
Labour hailed the President for the gesture and urged its members to look forward for a rosy Yuletide.
But if feelers from the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) are anything to go by, the hope of having a blissful Christmas may remain in the realm of a dream for the workers.
The governors said the President never said that all arrears of salaries should be paid before Christmas.
Besides, they foreclosed the possibility of getting their shares of the Paris/London Club refund before Christmas ,given the delay in the past when the President gave such directives.
The workers, through their local chapters in the states, are already counting days. Those in debtor-states are upbeat that the arrears of their salaries will be cleared.
Governors must be monitored
In Cross River State, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) commended the President for the gesture and urged him to raise monitors to guard against misapplication of the funds when released to the governors.
TUC local chairman Clarkson Otu said: “We must commend the President for the interest he has shown in the welfare of the workers of Nigeria. He has shown that he is very welfare-oriented, he is worker-friendly and, of course, he knows that these salary earners and low-income earners are really the people bearing the brunt of this recession and tight economic situation.
“You see him giving bailout and the Paris Club refund. He has continually stated that they should be used to defray outstanding salaries, pensions, gratuity and such other related allowances. So, he has done well in that regard.
“But the problem is whether it would translate to the benefit of the people when the governors get this money; whether they would use it for such purposes, because that is the problem we have.
We have no issues with arrears of salaries in Cross River State. The problem we have is the outstanding of monumental arrears of gratuity, which is climbing close to N30 billion now. “That has been our major concern. We have been shouting. It is our prayer and hope the man should put part of the money received if not all to address the issues of gratuity.
“I hope the governors would have that kind of sympathy for workers to deploy those funds appropriately. It is unfortunate that some governors, despite getting these funds, still don’t put them to use for what they were meant for. The leadership in the various states are not sensitive to the plight of the workers and the people. They are very greedy and wicked.
“After all, this Paris Club efund is not a loan. Some of them are just diverting those funds. Some have stolen it for whatever grandiose projects, some becoming pipe dreams, even in our own state here.
“I think the President should do more. There have been complaints in various states that the released funds are not being utilised for those purposes. The people are still crying. Pensions have not been paid in several states. Gratuity is still outstanding. Salaries are still being owed.
“The President is still giving bailout and the governors have not accounted for the ones given to them in the past. So, that is the area that is lacking. If you give them this money, follow it up. Ensure that they are utilized.
Reduced allocations cripple states
The local chapter of the TUC in Ekiti Ekiti State welcomed the bailout, saying the reduction in monthly subventions to the states from the Federation Account has adversely affected state finances.
Chairman of the TUC in the state, Odunayo Adesoye, said Governor Ayo Fayose has done his best on workers’ welfare but that paucity of funds has been a major challenge.
Adesoye said: “Governor Fayose has tried his best for workers since he came into power. He has always carried labour leaders along in the management and disbursement of allocations from the Federation account for the payment of workers’ salaries.
“But, the reduction in the allocations to the state occasioned by the shortfall in the oil revenue and deductions from the state allocation are responsible for the state government owing workers arrears of salaries.
“If it is true that there is directive that governors should pay workers’ salaries before Christmas, the Federal Government should assist the state governments with financial support.
“Our governor loves workers. He has done his best within the limited resources available to him and he wants workers to enjoy a blissful Christmas and he is even working towards that already.”
But the Enlightened Workers’ Forum (EWF), a group in the state work force,urged the Federal Government to hold Fayose accountable on the management of previous financial interventions.
EWF state coordinator, Mike Bamidele, said the state government should not have owed as much as between five and eight months’ arrears if financial reliefs were well managed in the past.
Bamidele said: “This presidential directive is a welcome development because civil servants in Ekiti State are suffering. They are being owed between five and eight months’ arrears. I mean the core civil servants – workers in institutions under subvention and local government employees.
“This is a government that had received series of intervention funds from the Federal Government, including bailout funds, Paris Club refund and Budget Support Fund (BSF) but these funds have been diverted as attested to buy the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which said N680 million from the first tranche of the bailout cash was diverted.
“We have said it times without number that Fayose should be made to account for these funds so that workers will be given what is due to them. We urge the Federal Government to devise means of paying the planned release before Xmas directly into workers’ account to prevent further diversion.”
NLC threatens unrest if…
The NLC in Edo State said it would cause industrial unrest if Governor Godwin Obaseki failed to pay pensioners, local government employees and tertiary institution workers.
It promised to ensure the state government complied with the Presidential directive that the balance of the Paris Club refund be used to pay workers’ salaries.
The local Chairman of the NLC, Emmanuel Ademokun, told reporters that the union will monitor the application of the refund by state government.
Ademokun stated that the NLC will ensure the usage of the expected fund to pay pensioners, local government workers and staff of some tertiary institutions in the state.
His words, “We have a lot of issues as regards pensioners in the state including those that in the local government. We don’t want pensioners going to stay in the street again demanding for payment.
“We are prepared to monitor how the fund will be disbursed. There will be industrial unrest if the state govern fail to settle pension and salary arrears.”
The pensioners’ spokesman in the state, Gabriel Osemwekhai, a lawyer, said his members will resume their street protest if they were not paid their pension arrears.
“We will go back to the trenches and do what we know how to do. We are waiting for the money to be paid,” he said.
Edo government disagrees
The Obaseki-led government said it has always paid workers’ salaries on or before the 26th of every month. It faulted claims that it owed workers and pensioners 10 months salaries. Such report “is false and misleading,” the governor’s Special Adviser on Communication & Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, said in a press statement.
According to him, the state has motivated its employees for optimal service delivery with prompt payment of salaries.
The statement reads: “The state government has ensured that workers are paid as and when due. We are pursuing all-inclusive reforms in the state civil service to ensure that workers deliver optimum service to the people. The payment of their salaries is one of the first steps to achieving this and we have been faithful to that mandate.
“We have met these obligations right from the previous administration up till now. In Edo State, we prioritise the welfare of workers, both those in active service and even pensioners.
“We have not only paid salaries, we have also met obligations to pensioners. In fact, we have paid N6.2 billion to both state and local government pensioners from January to September.”
Four-month salary arrears sure in Bayelsa
The local chapters of the NLC and TUC in Bayelsa State are sure of the payment of the four and half-month arrears of their members’ salaries by Governor Seriake Dickson.
The Monday’s directive of President Buhari that the third tranche of the Paris Club refund should be released to the state governors with emphasis on payment of workers’ salaries boosted their hopes.
The NLC Chairman, Bipre Ndiomu, told The Nation, that prior to Buhari’s directive, Dickson had promised use the refund to pay outstanding salaries.
Ndiomu noted that the government was owing four and half month salaries and not 10 months as reported in some quarters.
The unionist, however, said the government’s ability to offset all the arrears was dependent on the amount of money released to the state government.
He explained that Dickson used the first tranche to pay arrears of two months; the second tranche to offset one and a half month adding that the amount of the expected third tranche would determine the capacity of the government.
Ndiomu said: “We commend the Federal Government because that is what we expected them to do. We hope that all the governors will oblige. In the state, the governor has been complying.
“In the first tranche, he paid arrears of two months. In the second one, we were paid one and a half month. So, we are expecting that this one will come out on time so that workers will enjoy the Christmas as the President had directed.
“In Bayelsa, the state government is owing four and half months and we are confident that the government will pay the arrears. But, how much we do not know yet.
“We don’t know how much is coming and that is one thing the Federal Government should make clear so that we can bargain with that.”
In a statement signed by its Information Commissioner Daniel Iworiso-Markson, the government faulted a report that it owed workers between 10 to 16 months’ salary backlog.
Iworiso-Markson said: “The fact of the matter is that the Bayelsa State government is not owing up to 10/16 months’ salaries as claimed in the report. All the salaries of workers in the he state civil service have been paid in 2017.
“There is no outstanding. Please note what was published about Bayelsa State was false. It is also unfair that no move was made by the writer to contact the media unit before such a story was published.
“We are constrained, once again, to correct an erroneous impression being fed to the Nigeria public by some faceless interests that the Bayelsa State government is owing workers salaries of between 10 to 16 months. It is important to note that the Bayelsa State Government is among the few states that have paid salaries up to date in 2017.”
Doubt over governors’ sincerity
Labour leaders in Rivers State hailed the presidential directive with reservations on whether the governors will comply.
NLC chairman in the state Beatrice Utubor, feared the governors might disregard the directive.
Describing Buhari as a worker-friendly President, Utubor recounted the efforts made by the President to improve government/worker relationship, but regretted that the governors have been insensitive to the plight of workers and pensioners.
Utobor said: “We are happy with the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari but the issue is how far the governors will comply with the instructions given.
“The first time the President assumed power, he gave bail-out fund to some states that are owing salaries arrears to pay workers and pensioner, he later released Paris-Club refund to governors for the same purpose. Now, he has given another directive to release another one to help them clear the salaries, but we do not know whether they will pay or not, but we are happy for Mr. President.
“Some of the governors are paying salaries but not pensions, while some are not. One thing we do know is that Mr President has never been the problem of workers. He is worker-friendly but the governors are insensitive to the plight of workers.
“We have been telling the governor to pay pensioners in the state; that they are dying in their numbers in the state. The workers who retired since 2015 have not been keyed into the pension scheme, they have not even been paid their gratuity are worst affected on this, they are dying every day.
“However, for those that are yet working and the retirees that are already receiving pension before he came in, he is trying in the payments. He pays both parties regularly and simultaneously, but there are some retirees of 2012, 2013, 2014, and part of 2015 who were not able to process their retirement documents before implementation of PenCom began, they are not being paid.
“Also those that retired in 2016, the government has not been paying its counterpart funds to the pension managers. So, this category of workers are just there with nothing to live on, with nobody doing anything about their case.
“In the same vain, workers of Rivers State Sustainable Agency (RSSDA), have not been paid their monthly salaries for more than two years. It is my wish that the CBN would release the funds as soon as possible and that the governor of the state complies swiftly by using the funds as directed.”
In his reaction, a former House of Assembly Deputy Speaker in the state, Leyii Kwanee, lauded the President for the gesture and urged governors to ensure judiously apply the funds.
He urged any governor thinking of diverting the funds into electioneering campaign to perish such an idea.
It’s a morale booster
The Sokoto State Chairman of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC), Abubabakr Sadeeq Malami, described the directive as timely and morale boosting, at a festive period.
“It’s a welcome development, especially to workers in states that are being owed salaries by their governments. Sokoto is not among states owing workers in respect of salaries. The November salaries have been paid by state government.”
“The government is consistent and regular in the payment of workers’ salaries. Let me tell you that workers’ welfare is a priority to the Sokoto State government.”
On the Paris club refunds, he said it would be a thing of joy if states could have it released at once to enable those with huge unpaid salary arears to clear same. It will go a long way to boost the morale and welfare status of workers.
He said on the other hand, states with zero salary arrears can as well allocate same to meaningful projects for the benefit of their people.
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Ondo State described the directive on salary payment before Christmas as cheery.
Its Secretary Solomon Igbelowowa noted that the federal government ought to have put the financial status of each state into consideration before issuing the blanket directive.
Igbelowowa noted that in some states, workers have been receiving half salaries since the past one year, hence, no matter the amount of the Paris Club refund, it would have no impact on the workers if it failed to cater for the unsettled salary arrears.
The NUT, however, expressed lauded the President for sharing in the plight of many workers who have not been able to make ends meet because of piled up salary arrears owed by many state governments.
The local chapter of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), through its Public Relations Officer (PRO) Victor Omodara, also hailed President Buhari for the directive to the state governors.
He noted that the 50 per cent Paris Club refund for states would be adequate to clear the backlog of salary arrears, saying that workers under the NLC and TUC would ensure strict utilisation of the funds.
According to him, President Buhari did not give any clause as to how the fund would be spent but mainly to clear the unsettled salary arrears.
Omodara said what the directive of the President in the issue is very clear saying “anything contrary to the directive would be vehemently resisted by the entire workforce in the state.”
The Ogun State chapter Chairman of the TUC Olubunmi Fajobi, told The Nation that Buhari’s directive demonstrated his awareness of some governors’s indebtedness to their workers.
The labour hoped the state governors should listen and respond positively so that majority of the workers will be happy during Christmas, as well as be able to pay school fees in January.
According to him, the Ogun State government owed salaries.
He listed the categories of arrears owed them as 16 months cooperative deductions, 10 months check-off dues, 86 months contributory pension, three years leave bonuses and three years of unpaid promotion arrears.
The state Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), Akeem Lasisi, described the plights of the state and local government employees in Ogun as pathetic.
The President’s directive might just be what that would bring succour to them if the governor applied the Paris Club refund to settle backlog of arrears, he said.
He said: “There is nothing better than the state government using the Paris Club refund to settle all our deduction arrears. We are suffering. We encourage the Finance Minister and CBN to release the remaining refund so that workers plights could be addressed with it.
“We can’t access loan from financial institutions or cooperatives because of unpaid deductions. We are hoping that this time, the state government would use the money from Paris Club refund to address all our arrears issues.”
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Taiwo Adeoluwa, had admitted that the government was having issues with the deductions and was working to straighten things out.
He told The Nation that the government wasnot owing salaries.
Adeoluwa said: “We are not owing workers salary. We only have issues with deductions but not salaries and the government is working to address the deductions. Government workers are owed elsewhere) “but not in Ogun. No. Not in Ogun state.”
Guarding against past pitfall
The Akwa Ibom State chapter chairman of the NLC, Etim Ukpong, described the directive as timely and paying the workers’salaries abefore Christmas, will be a great relief.
“It would help cushion the pains suffered by workers arising from the expected rise in the cost of food items, clothes and other necessities associated with the yuletide,” Ukpong said.
The NLC chief said that workers in Akwa Ibom are anxiously waiting for the money to be disbursed.
Ukpong, however, lamented that the previous tranches released to some governors were not beneficial to workers because they were diverted.
He said: “We are waiting for the money. Workers in the state did not benefit from previous tranches. The governors should use the money to settle the backlog of indebtedness to workers.”
He also urged the federal government to strictly monitor the application of the London-Paris Club refund by the governors, whose lifestyle, he alleged was contrast to worker’s plight.
The Kwara State chair of the TUC, Olumo Kolawole, said of the directive: “It is a good one for workers. As a labour leader I appreciate the gesture. The president means well for the workers to celebrate the Christmas in good mood.
“It is an opportunity for the state governors owing workers’ salaries to put smile on workers faces.
“I hope the state governors owing arrears of salary will justify the president’s directive to CBN and Finance Minister by using the 50 percent balance of Parish Club to pay their workers.”
