Nasarawa civil servants live in bits and pieces

The workers, including primary school teachers, were paid 40, 50, 60 or 70 percent of what they normally received as salaries, depending on the workforce of the various local government areas. The state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Aliyu Tijjani, said the state government arrived at the decision of paying in percentages  as […]

The workers, including primary school teachers, were paid 40, 50, 60 or 70 percent of what they normally received as salaries, depending on the workforce of the various local government areas. The state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Aliyu Tijjani, said the state government arrived at the decision of paying in percentages  as the ministry had spent over 70 percent of the N1.5 billion Paris Club funds set aside to augment local government workers salaries.

“We have spent N990m to augment December salaries and paid 100 percent and also paid N144m to augment pensions,” he said.

The commissioner said only retires from August 2011 would benefit from the payment of full pensions while those who retired after that   would get only 50 percent of their pensions.

He said the 13 local government areas of the state got a total N1.3bn as December federal allocation, adding that N39m was for salaries of traditional rulers.

A primary school head teacher in Lafia, Umaru Suleiman, told Daily Trust that he had been  teaching for 21 years but that last year was the most difficult for him.

“As a head teacher, I receive N23,000 instead of N69,000 as my salary. I have two wives and 12 children and I only received full salary once in more than a year. That was last December. The last time I received full salary apart from this was in October 2015. Since then I have been receiving in percentages that varied every month. Life has been very difficult for me and my colleagues. Many cannot even feed their families now.

“We are among the worst hit by the communal clashes in the state because the houses we built from loans accessed through commercial banks were destroyed and many of us are yet to repay those loans despite the cut down in salaries. Banks have continued to deduct the loans from source. As I talk to you, two of my colleagues are squatting in my uncle’s house where I also reside with my family,” he said.

A health worker in a primary health center in Lafia, Alhassan Sarki, said shortly before the implementation of the minimum wage, he was promoted to Grade Level 6 but the management had refused to implement the promotion. Sarki told Daily Trust that he received N7,250 as salary instead of N21,750.

“The condition has forced me to continue borrowing my friend’s motorcycle at weekends for commercial motorcycle operation (okada) in the town in order to survive because my salary cannot cater for my family for even one week. I have a wife and three children in a rented house. I still battle to settle food debts and other household requirements. I had since April last year removed two of my children from a private school to a government one because I cannot afford their school fees in the private school any more. When the condition bites harder, I skip Monday classes and go to the Asakio village market on the outskirts of Lafia to off-load goods from trucks to survive,” he said.

Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura during the week asked the state chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to leave him and the workers as according to him, they have struck a “working understanding” over their salaries.

The governor’s spokesman, Ahmed Tukur, said the remark credited to the party that workers were having issues over their salaries was just blackmail.

“The state government and labour had signed an agreement on the 10th of December, 2016 that if accruals from the federation account were not sufficient to pay salaries in any month, the said amount would be reserved and added to accruals from the following month to pay one month salary in full,” the statement said.

It added that the Paris Club refunds had since been utilized as advised by the federal government and assured the workers that the Al-Makura administration would always make staff salaries a priority.

The PDP had earlier challenged Governor Umaru Al-Makura to direct his finance commissioner to give details of where and how the Paris Club fund released to the state was utilized.

The PDP’s position was contained in a  statement signed by the state’s publicity secretary, Muhammed Bwala.

The state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abdullahi Adeka, confirmed the agreement between the government and the labour leadership that instead of receiving half salaries, the union opted for the money to be kept until the end of the subsequent month to meet their target of 100 percent payment.

“All the workers converged here at the NLC secretariat and agreed that once the accruals do not meet the target to pay 100 percent the government should keep the money instead of having the arrears of 50 percent which they don’t know when they will be paid. It is better they have the assurance of one full month salaries. This was a unanimous NEC meeting decision, and that is why the governor went to the media and said he had an agreement with the workers. But this agreement affects only core civil servants who receive salaries directly from the state government,” he added.

Civil servants in the state have not received their January salaries, and there is every likelihood that they will wait till the end of February based on the subsisting agreement.

A civil servant in Doma LGA, Danjuma Musa, told our correspondent that he was already looking for another job to quit his local government job, saying, “I receive N14,000 as salary and what can that do for a family of seven? If not because of relatives who are peasant farmers that support me with food items, my life would have been miserable by now.

“My wife sells food and pure water, all our four children hawk on the streets because of our condition and I am still looking for an alternative means of livelihood because of the future of my children. Right now, all of them are in public schools, although the senior child was in a private school but the present condition forced me to transfer him to a public school.

“I am appealing to the state government to look into the current conditions of workers. We all aware of the economic recession in the country but I am calling on Governor Al-Makura in the name Allah to look inwards and come to the rescue of thousands of Nasarawa indigenes whose lives are deteriorating.”

The state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Jatau Tete Francis, said the union was discussing with five other unions under local government administration to make  their position known on the payment of salaries in percentages. Efforts to get the state chairman of NULGE,  Abubakar Abdullahi, for comments were abortive.