In Kogi, pain of 17,000 workers going 18 months without pay

He said: “I am one of the worst victims of this inhuman treatment that has been meted to us by the Kogi State government. This morning, the whole family took N40 tea and N80 bread. It is that bad. I was in hospital when the Sally Tibot screening exercise started in March last year. I […]

He said: “I am one of the worst victims of this inhuman treatment that has been meted to us by the Kogi State government. This morning, the whole family took N40 tea and N80 bread. It is that bad. I was in hospital when the Sally Tibot screening exercise started in March last year. I had three operations at the Asokoro hospital in Abuja. I was just recuperating when I was told that I had to be physically present for the screening. I was brought to Lokoja by my brother. I managed to get near Mrs. Sally and opened my stomach to show her that I was from hospital. To my dismay, she collected my forms and tore them and insisted that I joined the queue when it was obvious that I could not stand.  It took the compassion of one of the policemen attached to her before I could be screened. I had no problem, but my salary was suddenly stopped and since then, my suffering has not abated. I spent over N350, 000 for the three operations.”
Abdulsalam said he risks his health by engaging in spraying chemicals and herbicides to survive now. “Ordinarily, I am an admin staff but I had to learn herbicides spraying to compliment my meager salary. Doctors have warned me after the operation to stop, but how do I survive? In fact, these days, I collect even N1500 for jobs that should be N5000 just to feed. I will never forgive the government for what they have done to my family.” Abdulsalam’s story depicts the condition of over 17,000 workers of Kogi State government who have already taken the state government to court over their unpaid salaries and other sundry matters. Weekly Trust finding shows that right now there are two categories of workers in Kogi State: those who are working and receiving their salaries and those working without salaries.
Genesis of the problem
The Sally Tibot consultancy firm headed by Mrs Sa’adat Otun, hired by the state government sometime in March last year to audit its staff to weed out ghost workers ended up compounding the problem.  Weekly Trust findings revealed that instead of fishing out ghost workers, it ended up retiring workers at will without recourse to civil service rules.  According to Comrade S.M. Ojanaun, leader  of the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the NLC was able to detect quite early into the screening that government was far more interested in downsizing the workforce rather than looking for ghost workers.  “If you are looking for ghost workers you should be able to detect them after table payment. But all of a sudden she will look at a civil servant and say ‘you are too old to be in the service’ regardless of what his/her papers say beside the fact that she completely jettisoned civil service rule and  pronounces a civil servant  retired. At the end, she left so many civil servants hanging. They were neither retired nor paid while they were still working.”
Malam Yahaya Audu, leader of the 17,000 workers who have taken the Kogi State government to court, told Weekly Trust that Sally Tibot created confusion in Kogi State and has left the workers to suffer.  Audu said another issue has to do with government’s planned review of the Sally Tibot panel which seems to have foot-dragged for a long time now and the contentious issue of those employed since 2004. “When we petitioned the government over the haphazard manner Mrs. Otun carried out her screening they promised to review it. We are still waiting for the review 17 months after. Later, government is saying that those employed from 2004 are not recognized because the number of those employed was far above what the government approved. What kind of logic is that? Government should have punished those responsible for the inflation of figures rather than workers with genuine cases.”
Workers’ tales of woe
Bashir Sheidu, a secondary school teacher affected by the screening, said life has been unbearable. “I lost my 2-year-old daughter because I could not afford hospital bills. My landlord has ejected me from his house because I could not meet up with the rent. A good Samaritan helped me with a room. That is where myself and my family are staying right now. To make matters worse they transferred me to a school in Magongo local government last Friday. I don’t have money to report there. What kind of injustice is this? You are working and not receiving your salary and somebody has the temerity to transfer you upon all these suffering. We are dying in Kogi State. We are praying God to touch the heart of these people.”
Baba Sunday Umoru, 55, looked dejected. He works with the Kogi State Ministry of Works. Umoru told Weekly Trust that he now goes about weeding farms for survival. “Even my motorbike that I put up for sale, nobody is willing to buy. I now go to people’s farms to weed just to survive.”
Owude Audu, a staff of Kogi Agricultural Development Authority (ADP), now operates ‘Okada’ business. “It has not been easy. You know that ordinarily the salary in Kogi State is nothing to write home about. To now withhold that meager sum for upward of 17 months is a disaster. My daughter was ill recently, I could not take her to hospital. We just gave her herbs and we are praying that it works.”
Mrs Bilkisu Suleiman’s case was compounded because the screening affected her husband too. “You can imagine a situation where a husband and wife have gone without salary for 18 months. I was duly screened. So, was my husband. Our appointments have been confirmed. This condition has forced us to withdraw our children from boarding school because we cannot afford the fees. To feed now is not easy.”
Audu, leader of the unpaid civil servants, said he couldn’t quantify the hardships they have gone through in the last 18 months. “We have lost nothing less than 12 staff since March, 2009. Most of the workers died from avoidable deaths because they couldn’t continue with their drugs especially those with hypertension and diabetes.  During that screening a woman from Kabba was struggling in the queue in the hot sun and she never knew when her baby died on her back. Rosemary Elle of Agric Ministry died on her way to the screening in a car accident.  I have just been informed that three staff of the Ministry of Works by the name Isaiah, Elizabeth and Suleiman have died from avoidable circumstances.”
Labour labours in vain?
On why it took the Labour union that long to demand the right of the workers, considering their plights, Comrade S. M. Ojanaun, Kogi State NLC boss said they had been dialoguing with the state government over a long time. “The struggle has been on for a very long time. We have been discussing the issue and we have given ultimatum. We have nothing less than four different agreements signed by government and labour over this issue. When the consultant came, we discovered that the government was not interested in screening, rather, they wanted to reduce the staff strength. We called the workers to down tools but because of sentiments, government was able to use divide-and-rule tactic to frustrate us. They went ahead with the screening. The TUC Secretary, the NUT chairman and I were detained for over a week. My sister too was detained for 23 days on trumped-up charges of selling appointment letters.”
He said this time the Labour union has had enough. “Over 4000 workers’ fate since then hangs in the balance. They were neither sacked nor retired, yet, they have not been paid since March last year. All of a sudden, they stopped their salaries for about 18 good months now. We have been pleading with government to ensure that these people are recalled back but they still proved adamant. All the entire workers of the state have decided that enough is enough.”
State government reacts
Kogi State Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Musa Ahmadu told Weekly Trust that government is doing everything possible to restore those excluded from Sally Tibot’s screening. “When the consultant finished her work, she wrote a report. The report actually excluded many people. If we take that report without reviewing it, so many people will be out of jobs. But government in its own wisdom thought that we needed a review of whatever the consultant had done. We reviewed some of the issues raised. We received complaints from workers. The government felt that all these complaints needed to be addressed. In the final analysis, what we want to achieve is that anybody genuinely employed should not be thrown out of job. In my own office here eleven staff members are affected. We believe that the review exercise has brought back those that need to come back to the service. If after review there is still further complaint, government is still willing to listen to genuine ones to be redressed.”
On why it took the government more than sixteen months to review the screening, he said government wanted to be thorough this time. “We are looking at the situation of over 3000 staff. We are looking at the data of these staff. We are looking at when they came in, how they came in, whether they have proper documents, were they employed through the front or back door. We had to look at all these facts. We are being very careful not to commit any wrong. It is a painstaking exercise. Government wants to get it right once and for all. We appreciate that the exercise was very painful for all the staff affected.  I believe that we are almost there with what we have done.”
Musa told Weekly Trust that most of those affected will be recalled. “Precisely the review is about those not admitted into the consultant’s list. We have addressed all the issues raised by labour, namely promotion without cash backing and leave arrears. We will reach agreement with Labour soon.” But the workers continue to groan while the wait seems like an eternity to their families, as well.