As a result of the sustained decline in the price of crude oil, which has also affected the country's economy, there has been a huge fall in funds available for distribution among federal, state and local governments of the federation.

Monthly federal allocations that accrue to states and LGs have consistently declined. This has affected the capacity of many state and local governments to meet some of their obligations, which include payment of workers' salaries and entitlements to pensioners. Various states of the federation are facing difficulties paying workers' salaries promptly.

President Muhammadu Buhari of recent described the situation as worrisome, saying it is a matter of great concern to him that nearly two-thirds of states of the federation are still having difficulties with salary payments despite the bail-out funds provided to them by the federal government.

Across the country, delay in payment of salaries to workers has been a recurring scenario since last year. In fact, some state governors have in recent time declared their states financially broke, saying that they cannot pay workers' salaries.

Just last Thursday, the Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko said that the state is broke and therefore cannot afford to pay salaries to the striking civil servants. Mr. Mimiko announced this while addressing the protesting workers, explaining that the State treasury is empty and that the government is struggling to survive. Workers in Ondo are said to be owed about five-month salary and have been on industrial action for the past few days.

Similarly, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State on 11 June said he wished he could pay the salaries of workers, but declared that Ekiti is broke. He begged the workers who have been on strike for the past two weeks to call off their strike and resume work. Fayose expressed sadness at his inability to pay the workers.

Early this month, the Niger state governor, Abubakar Bello said with the gloomy picture of the State's economy, it had become impossible for him to pay salaries. He said his government had been borrowing from banks since January to augment whatever came to the State in form of federal allocation. The governor noted that as of May ending, the state government was in debt to the tune of N3bn, adding that it could rise N10bn by December if the trend should continue.

In Oyo State, workers under the banner of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) last week staged a rally to protest against their unpaid six-month salaries and government's controversial proposal to handover the management of some schools to private bodies. The rally, which was coordinated by the national body of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), took off from the Oyo State Secretariat of the NLC at Agodi-Gate at about 10.30 am.

The story is pretty not much different from what happened last Wednesday in Ogun State, when students of the Tai Solarin College of Education (TASCE), Omu-Ijebu stormed the Oke Ilewo, Abeokuta secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, protesting the alleged non-payment of 14-month salaries of their lecturers. The students, who came in three buses, were armed with placards which bore various inscriptions such as, 'Amosun save TASCE from extinction,' Lectures are not going on in TASCE,' 'Amosun restore education at TASCE' and 'Please, students are suffering in TASCE.'

In Benue, the State government has declared Fridays as public holiday for workers in the State so that they can work in their farms in the face of government's inability to pay their salaries regularly. Governor Samuel Ortom, who chaired the 16th session of the meeting at which the decision was taken, explained that the objective was to enable as many workers as possible to produce food to feed their families in the current economic downturn which has made the regular payment of salaries a major challenge.

States such as Imo, Bayelsa, Kogi, Osun, Abia, Plateau, Kaduna and a few others are also having their own share of the lingering salary impasse. In Kaduna, workers are owed about three-month salaries. The state government has however, attributed the delay to the ongoing staff verification exercise in the State.

What is the workers' salary situation in Kwara State? The situation in Kwara is not as bad as critics of the state government and other self-acclaimed social media activists have made it appear. As it stands, the State government is up-to-date with salary payment to workers in the mainstream civil service, while some parastatals workers are being owed about three month salaries.

The salary situation at the local government level, which concerns LG employees and SUBEB staff (Primary and Junior secondary school teachers), has always been at the front burner of every discussion nowadays. Many people come online to say this set of workers are being owed five-month salaries, some will even say 10 months, which is far from the truth.

It is no more news that allocation to the local government from the federation has suffered a huge decline in recent months. All the 16 LGs in Kwara require about N2.5billion for workers' monthly salaries, but now get less than less N1.5b every month as federal allocation. Following the frequent reduction in federal allocation, the local government authorities and the leadership of labour unions had resolved to prorate payments of salary to their workers.

With this arrangement, the LG authorities based on their capacity pay certain percentage of monthly salaries to their workers. While some pay 40 per cent, others pay about 50 per cent or above every month pending when the current economic conditions improve. It should also be noted that Kaiama remains the only LG that is up-to-date with salary payment to its workers. So it is not as if these workers do not get paid for the past five months or thereabouts.

However, it is unfortunate that issue of salary delay exists at the local government level, but one cannot entirely fault the LG authorities or the state government for this undesirable situation. From the scenarios painted above, it can be understood that the salary impasse is a national challenge and it is not peculiar to Kwara State.

We should also understand that payment of wages to LG employees and SUBEB staff remains the constitutional duty of the LG administrations, and not that of the state government. This explains why different stakeholders have clamoured for the takeover of basic education by state governments from local councils.

Even at that, the State governor, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed has been making concerted efforts with the LG chairmen, labour unions and other stakeholders to ensure the lingering salary crisis becomes a thing of the past. He has disclosed that his government remained committed to ensuring the welfare of all categories of workers in the state. It takes proper understanding of issues for us to appreciate the efforts of the State government.

It is pertinent we all support the state government in its effort to find a lasting solution to the salary crisis. It is time we all faced the reality, think out of the box and fashion out ways to salvage the situation. Drastic situations require drastic measures.

God bless Kwara State. God bless Nigeria.