- Every state in Nigeria is said to be owing workers salaries and pension with the exception of Lagos state
- The Trade Union Congress, which is displeased about this reality, made this disclosure
- The president of the union, Bobboi Kagama, said that the only healthy state in the country that has no arrears of salaries and other wages or unpaid benefits is Lagos state
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has disclosed that the number of states owing workers has grown to 35 as the 2019 general election approaches
The president of the union, Bobboi Kaigama, made this disclosure after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, saying that only Lagos state is up to date with salary payment and other benefits, Leadership reports.
NAIJ.com gathered that Kaigama warned government against diverting money meant for payment of workers salaries and other benefits into electioneering.
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He lamented that despite the bail out and Paris Club refunds, every other state is owing one form of benefit or the other including salaries.
He said: “We want to say without fear of contradiction that the only healthy state in this country that has no arrears of salaries and other wages or unpaid benefits is Lagos state. All the other states have one issue or the other in terms of salaries, wages or benefits of their workers that have not been paid. There is no exception.
"You will find out that if it is not one month salary that is not paid, it will be 13 months of gratuities or pensions that have not been paid. Or that contributory pension deductions are not being remitted, or that there are certain promotions arrears and death benefits that have not been paid. So, I am telling you, taking this issue holistically, we can only say Lagos state government is the only healthy state in this country.
“We keep saying that if state governors cannot meet their obligations to their workers, they should just resign and leave the stage. We have continued to argue that apart from the first generation states that were created by the military, there is no state that was created there after that did not have its submission that the state had the capacity to pay the wages of the workers in the state and other things. Ours is that probably those who are saying that we should go back to regional government are not misplaced because the trust we have on state government has been eroded.
"So, if it is just for the purposes of payment of salaries, no other developmental issues like infrastructure, health facilities, roads, rails transportation and so on, we are better off with regional government. Then, we did not have the oil that we have today. We only had our agricultural resources, solid minerals that we developed and funded.
"The first generation universities in this country, the cocoa house we had in Ibadan, the first television in Africa and a host of other investments of the regional governments. Today we cannot vouch for states.”
“If we are talking of none payment of salaries, it is a case of corruption and not a case of the funds not there or available. Because for the state governments, first, we had the case of bailout, we had a case of budget support funding, we had a case of first, second and even third tranches of the Paris Club refunds.
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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), one of the umbrella bodies for workers in the country, threatened to disgrace 10 governors for allegedly refusing to pay salaries despite receiving the Paris Club refund from the federal government.
It was reported that the threat came from the NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, at the national executive council meeting of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) in Abuja.
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Source: Naija.ng
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