CIVIL servants and pensioners in Benue State have cried out to Governor Hyacinth Alia to pay the arrears of their salaries and pension to enable them to pay their accumulated debts and live a life free from continued harassment and embarrassment by their creditors and to cope with the current economic hardship.
The workers urged the governor to do this in fulfilment of his promise during his electioneering campaigns to clear the backlog of owed salaries and pension within one hundred days in office to ensure their welfare and boost their morale for enhanced service delivery.
Some civil servants who spoke with National Record during the Easter celebration in Makurdi, under the cover of anonymity for fear of victimisation, lamented that they were unable to buy food items and other gifts for their children to celebrate the festivity as their meagre salaries could not measure up to the prevailing high prices of goods in the market.
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Some of them lamented that their creditors did not allow them any breathing space under the false impression that the government now pays salaries as and when due and as a result pressing them for the repayment of debts.
They said although the Governor Alia has been paying salaries regularly since he came on board, he had however failed to pay the arrears owed them by the past administration which he promised during campaigns to clear within 100 days.
This, according to them, had generally made it difficult for them to fend for their families even before Easter period as they were compelled to use their current salaries to pay some debts which they incurred when they were owed for a long time.
Asked how many months they were being owed, the vice chairman, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Benue State Polytechnic, Ugbokolo chapter, Comrade Owuna, who declined to speak for the entire Academic Staff Union of Tertiary Institutions in Benue State (ASUTIBS) in but only his chapter, said it is nine months for some members and ten months for others.
“For some of the schools that collected September, were three months and some who collected October, were four months plus April salary. So, the governor should pay us at least three- and four-months’ arrears plus April salary,” Owuna said
On whether ASUTIBS was still going ahead with its plan to stage a protest against Alia’s administration over the non-payment of the arrears as earlier had been gathered by National Record, Owuna said the union had a meeting with government officials last Thursday but ended in disarray.
He said ASUTIBS come out with its resolutions after the Easter holidays, likely before the end of the week.
“We had a meeting with government yesterday but the meeting ended in disarray. They said they are going to pay one month’s salary in April with arrears.
“Every other effort that we did so that they can step up proved abortive. The only thing they told us at last was that they are going to talk to the governor and then, they will get back to us,” Owuna said.
According to him, the state government officials who interfaced with ASUTIBS during the meeting were the Commissioner of Finance, Mr Michael Oglegba, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof. Joseph Alakali among other commissioners.
When contacted to know whether he conveyed the plight and cry of the workers to the government, the state council chairperson of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Terungwa Igbe, said “the government said it’s doing something about it”. But he was not sure how soon the government would fulfil the promise.
The state council chairperson of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) could not be reached as Comrade Ordue Tartenger, known to be the chairperson said he had left the union and that his successor is Comrade Gideon Akaa.
Efforts to get Comrade Akaa failed as National Record could neither get his mobile number nor locate him in TUC’s state council office as a result of the Easter holiday.
The chairman, Concerned Pensioners in Benue State, Mr Alexander Akosu, did not pick our phone calls seeking to enquire whether he had conveyed the complaints of pensioners in the state to the government, and exactly how many months they are being owed, National Record gathered from some pensioners that they are being owed not less than 78 months in arrears at the local government level and 45 months at the state level.
When contacted on phone to get his explanation on why the arrears were yet to be cleared by the governor contrary to his campaign promise and how soon that would be done, Benue State Commissioner of Finance, Mr Michael Oglegba, told National Record that it was due to paucity of funds.
“Payment of arrears is subject to funds availability. If we had all the money, we would have paid the arrears one day. That’s the campaign promise made right? So, it’s something that we are committed to. It’s just that the funds have to be available,” Oglegba said.
On the demand by ASUTIBS members that government should pay them four months at a time, Oglegba said it’s impossible and unreasonable.
“The idea is that we pay you one month and then, we spread it… The idea of paying arrears is to ensure that government survives and we don’t want to go back to the days when government begins to owe salaries again. That will not be nice,” Oglegba added.
