By Amos Aar
CASUAL staff working at Government House, Makurdi have appealed to Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, to kindly approve the request for their conversion to full employment status.
The casual workers made the appeal following speculations that the state head of service had recently submitted a memo to the governor requesting for the conversion of the affected staff to substantive status.
Some of the casual staff who spoke with National Record on Monday under anonymity said Governor Alia had during a meeting with all protocol staff of the Government House on June 26, 2024, asked all casual staff to stand.
According to our source, when they stood up, the governor asked the Head of Service why they were yet to be converted to permanent status despite the current economic condition that the N20,000 monthly stipend could not make any reasonable impact. The Head of Service allegedly responded that he had done everything, what remained was for the governor to sign the file.
“How would you feel if you are the one collecting ten thousand naira (N10,000) at this difficult time that things are very costly?”, one of the casual staff quoted the governor to have asked the Head of Service during the meeting even as the Head of Service was said to have kept correcting the governor that their stipend had been increased to N20,000 which still seemed very meagre to the governor.
An independent source at Government House, who also pleaded anonymity however told National Record that Governor was the one delaying the process of converting the casual workers to substantive status because every arrangement was concluded and the file passed to his table for approval.
“I have observed that the governor is the one delaying the process now because when he asked the head of service for the file, the head of service brought it but he has not signed it up till now.
“Why is the case of these casual staff different? There are names the governor brought; he did not insist that the names should be taken to the head of service for this kind of delay. Those people’s names were forwarded to the head of service to be given appointment letters to start work straight away and that was done without delay. Some of them have been posted to Government House here while others have been posted to the governor’s private residence in Makurdi”.
Lamenting their plight, another casual staff said the monthly stipend of N20,000 that they are being paid is not even enough to transport them to and from work for a whole month.
“We have 26 working days in a month which means that we need at least N26,000 stipend in a month just for transport fare, feeding is not included. I spend at least one thousand naira to come to work and go back everyday. I’m not talking about food, soap and other expenses. But if we are given permanent employment, our salaries will be upgraded accordingly and that will help us in no small measure. It will also go a long way to boost our productivity as well.
“The governor himself asked the head of service how he would feel if he was the one collecting N100,000 as monthly stipend at this kind of time.
“Already, the governor has assented to a law to regulate the engagement of casual workers in the Benue State public service which forbids employers from retaining casual workers for more than two years while some of us have spent more than ten years in casual status”, the casual staff lamented.
When contacted on Monday, July 9, 2024 via a phone call to confirm if he had submitted the file containing the names of the casual staff to be signed by the governor as claimed by the casual staff, the state Head of Service, Dr Moses Agbogbo Ode, declined to speak on phone after listening to our reporter’s enquiry.
He insisted that the reporter should come to his office for a one-on-one interaction on the matter. He said he had series of meetings on Monday and could not be accessed by this reporter on that day. When the reporter went to the office on Tuesday, he was given a visitor’s book to fill and wait at the reception room to be called inside if his purpose of visit was approvable.
Our reporter was also instructed to write the precise purpose for his visit to see the Head of Service, with the explanation that writing “official” would not be accepted. After filling the visitor’s form, our reporter waited for many hours but his name was not called to interface with the head of service.
Earlier in the day, the head of service warned the reporter never to call his line again, threatening to blacklist the latter’s contact if he dared to call again.
“My brother, you seem to be overstressing me. Once I have appointment with you, you check in my office. If you don’t meet me, you know you don’t meet me. This one that you have to call me 20 times, the next time you call, I will blacklist you”, the head of service threatened.
Findings revealed that some of the casual staff were employed since 2011 and have remained on casual status till today, July 10, 2024 after the last two administrations frustrated them twice by converting them to substantive and reverting back to casual status.
According to some casual staff who are victims of this administrative policy, former Governor Gabriel Suswam converted them to permanent staff at the tail end of his administration in 2015 and he exited office without paying them a dime.
When Samuel Ortom took over from Suswam in 2015, he converted those workers back to casual staff on the ground that they were employed at the twilight of Suswam’s government with an intention to pose unnecessary burden to him. Those staff remained on casual status until Ortom was about to complete his 8-year tenure when he again gave them fresh appointments in September 2022 and paid them only two months salaries at once. Apart from the 2-month salaries paid those staff, Ortom did not pay them a dime again until he left office on May 29, 2023.
Barely two weeks into office, incumbent Governor Hyacinth Alia again sacked those workers and directed that they be reverted back to casual status.
Governor Alia premised his action on the ground that his predecessor, Ortom, had intentionally given him unnecessary burden by employing them at the tail end of his 8-year administration.
This has made it the third time the casual workers had been frustrated over the years even as some of them claimed to have worked at the government house for 14 years.
