Date: 2015-08-18

Kwara State government owes its mainstream civil servants only July salaries. However, primary school teachers in the state are yet to receive their salaries for the months of June and July while some local governments have not paid their staff since April. Parastatals in the state are worst hit as some of them owe workers between four and five months' salaries. The state-owned tertiary institutions are also affected. For instance, salaries for workers at the Kwara State University, (KWASU), which is jointly paid by the state and local governments, are in arrears of four months.

The management of College of Education, Oro has been able to pay 40 per cent of March, April, May and June salaries. Also sources confirmed that ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the state have not received their running cost since March this year. This has affected operations as well as the payment of allowances to casual workers on their payroll. The state government used part of the N2.1 billion it received from the $2.1 billion Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) dividend to settle the outstanding salaries of its mainstream civil servants and pensioners.

The local government share of the allocation was N1.4 billion. Local government workers in the state last month embarked on a strike to press home the demand for the payment of their outstanding salaries. The Provost of the College of Education, Oro, Dr Isiaka Opobiyi, assured his staff recently that government is equally mindful of the critical situation and that the problem will soon be over. He said: "So far so good, we are able to cope with the distressed situation. We may not be contented fully but at least we have been able to sustain ourselves with what we generate internally.

That is why the system is moving. The staffers are sacrificing a lot and government is aware; very soon the whole problem will be over." Officials of the College of Education Staff Union (COESU) and Non Academic staff Union (NASU) at Oro recently appealed to the state government to intervene before the situation gets out of hand. They asked the state government to pay its suspended subvention to the college for salaries of their members to be paid.

Chairman of COESU, Saba Daniel, said: "We are appealing to the state government to respond positively to our plight by paying our salaries as at when due. My candid and honest advice is for government to do what is right at the right time. You know that they owe us in arrears, they should pay us for many that are on drugs to buy drugs, and many responsible family men will pay their children school fees. Timely payment on our salaries will bail us out of the mess."