Kwara State had in the past been paying its workers their salaries before the end of each month. But the case was different with the May, June and July salaries. While the payment of May salaries was delayed for about a week, that of June stretched for over a month for many workers in the education and local government sectors.

The delay in the payment of the salaries generated so much furore that rumours of the sacking of local government employees were rife in the state. There was also a speculation that all was not well with the state's finances. Some members of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees across the 16 local government councils of the state protested the delay in payment.

People speculated that the state government had sacked some LG workers, including about 150 from Ifelodun, the LG where the state Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed comes from.

However, the government has denied sacking any employee in the state. Chairman, Ifelodun LG, Babatunde Kosalamola, said nobody in his council was sacked.

The protesting workers had stormed the Ilorin East LG at Pake, locked all gates to the premises in protest. The workers, who chanted solidarity songs, allegedly threatened to beat up their union officials or leaders, accusing them of compromising in order to stop them from embarking on a strike to press home the payment of their entitlements.

The protesting workers, led by the Deputy President, NULGE, Kwara State branch, Mrs. Felicia Aina, gave an ultimatum that their salaries and allowances must be paid before Friday (yesterday) and warned that if they were not paid within the period, they would take to the streets. According to her, some of the workers that were paid received only half of their salaries.

Also, no fewer than 2,000 teachers in the state suffered from the delayed payment.

In a measure to assuage the NULGE members, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Isa Bawa, later summoned the executive members of the union to a meeting to find a solution to the impasse.

Bawa said the state government was not responsible for the delay in the payment of the salaries or half payment and added that the government had released the money for the payment. He was also said to have presented a letter of the release of money for the payment of the salaries to the union leaders to prove that the state government was not responsible for the delay and part payment.

"It is not true that the state has sacked 150 employees. Delayed salary payment is not peculiar to Kwara State. The delay in the payment of the June salary has two issues: the late arrival of allocation from the federation account and the issues relating to biometrics. We also want to be sure of genuine staff members. The consultant we engaged for the biometrics has done his own part and he has submitted his report to the governor and state council.

"What we are doing now is implementation. We invited the stakeholders so that they will be carried long in the implementation. As at last week, we had paid all the employees of the local government except where there are issues of over-aged, under-aged and physically-challenged. We cannot pay people who are not supposed to be paid. We had to refer them to the medical board," Bawa said.

Also, Ahmed had attributed the problem in the payment of salaries to the delay in the disbursement of federal allocations.

Ahmed's Chief Press Secretary, Abdulwahab Oba, said there was no justification for further delay in the payment of council workers since, according to him, all necessary procedures had been concluded.

He directed those councils that had not paid the June salaries to do so immediately. According to him, it is grossly unfair for any LG not to pay the June salaries at the end of July. He claimed that the state government was in no way responsible for such ‘unacceptable lapses.'

But in a swift reaction, the Chairman, Offa LG, Saheed Popoola, described as unfair Ahmed's directive. Popoola, the only chairman from the Action Congress of Nigeria in the state, said Ahmed's directive was highly inflammatory and inciting.

He claimed that as at the time Ahmed gave the directive, the allocation was not yet in the account of his LG. According to him, it was on Thursday night that his banker informed him that the council's account had been credited. He stated that such directive from Ahmed could incite the council workers and other stakeholders against the LG executive as if they had the money and refused to pay them.

Curiously, the LG boss claimed that the amount released was not enough to pay the salaries of the employees and other stakeholders within the LG system not to talk of execution of developmental projects.

But Oba said the delay in the payment of June salaries of LG workers was as a result of the auditing, verification and the biometric exercise going on in all the 16 LGs and primary schools in the state.

He said the biometric exercise was meant to ascertain the actual wage bill of the councils and teachers in the state. He claimed that the exercise being the first in the LG areas came with some delays and pains, especially the biometric aspect as only the verified employees were paid their salaries.

The chairman, Kwara State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Kayode Olawepo, said the party was not surprised that salaries of the workers were delayed. He stated that the development was an inevitable consequence of the alleged years of profligacy and mismanagement of the Peoples Democratic Party-led government.

"If you read through the lines you will see that Kwara is paying back loans that were never used to better the lives of the people. A huge percentage of these loans are deducted at source. If you look at these scenarios, among others gradually being exposed as in the case of how Kwara's fund was used to stand surety for private companies belonging to a prominent leader of the party, you will understand why Kwara cannot pay its workers. It is an understatement to call it a shame," Olawepo said.

A former governor of the state, Dr. Bukola Saraki, attributed the problem to more financial contributions by the state and LGs to the Sovereign Wealth Fund. He said the increase in the overhead of the government as a result of increases in salaries had also negative affected the capacity of the government to timely discharge its financial obligations.

He stated that the challenge was not only being experienced in Kwara State, but it affected many other states.

Saraki, who is the senator representing Kwara Central, said the states should devise strategies to generate revenue and reduce reliance on federal allocation. He said agriculture would provide a good widow for investment to create more jobs, boost the financial viabilities of both the states and the residents as well as improve on the people's welfare and security.

"There had been challenges on issues of revenue this year as you all know that the government has tried as much as possible to be saving more in 2012, trying to build the excess crude account. There has been an increase in basic salaries that have increased the overhead, affecting most of the LGs.

"It is a national issue. It is time for us to begin to find long term solutions to the problem. There is no state that is not affected. One cannot say that it is PDP problem. There are states in the South-West that are having the same issue. There are places in the North with the same issue. Whether Borno, Yobe, Nasarawa or Ekiti, Osun, Oyo or those in the South-East, it is a national problem that we are all experiencing and we hope that with increased revenues and some of the actions being taking by the government to block revenue leakages, the situation will get better," Saraki said.

However, analysts opine that efforts should be made by all stakeholders to avoid a recurrence of the delayed payment to prevent a breakdown of law and order among the citizenry.