President Muhammadu Buhari has charged state governors to ensure that they pay all the salaries owed workers before Christmas, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports.
The president gave the charge on Monday, when he met with the governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Many states are still owing workers several months of salaries and allowances.
The Nigeria Labour Congress( NLC) has been up in arms against state governors who have owed civil servants salary arrears, some states running into over 20 months.
For example, states like Kogi, Benue, Osun, Bayelsa and Oyo owe their workers backlog of salaries, causing frictions between the states and labour unions.
The Daily Times can report that cases of poverty, diseases, malnutrition and in extreme cases, suicide have characterized some of the debtor- states.
In Kogi State, under Governor Yahya Bello, the celebrated case of a deputy director in the state’s civil service, Mr. Edward Soje, who committed suicide over unpaid salaries, is still fresh in the memories.
Despite the Bello’s claim that the preponderance of ghost workers had overbloated the state’s wage bill, months after several verification exercises had been concluded, the workers say that they are yet to be paid.
The argued that they are continually losing their critical members to poverty, diseases, squalor and deaths; and had even gone further to seek the immediate and passionate intervention of Buhari to save them from extinction despite the payment of Paris Funds’ refund’s tranches, statutory monthly allocations and bailouts.
In Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom had been contending with the labour unions over backlog of unpaid salaries, which had paralysed activities in the state, and had pitched the governor with the unions.
Ganiyu Obaaro, with Agency Report
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