8 months Salary Arrears: Kwara LG Workers go spiritual, stage protest

Local Government workers under the aegis of the National Union of Local Government Employees of Nigeria (NULGE), Kwara State chapter on Wednesday went spiritual to press home for the payment of their eight months salary arrears.

The affected workers also barricaded the main entrance of the state Government House in Ilorin, the state capital.

Our correspondent, who monitored the protest, observed that muslim members of the union resorted to prayers to call on God to intercede for them.

The placard-carrying protesters converged as early as 8am on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) secretariat in the metropolis before marching through the popular Ahmadu Bello Way and ended at the government house.

Some of the placards read: ‘Enough is enough,’ ‘ebi oo!’ ‘Where is LG IGR?’ ‘SA Labour must go,’ ‘we say no to JAAC,’ and ‘where is LG allocation?’

At the government house the peaceful protesters demanded to see the governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, as they wanted him to address them on the situation of things.

But despite their several attempts, they were resisted by the security agents deployed to the scene.

Addressing reporters, the state’s Secretary of NULGE, Abayomi Afolabi, called for the scrapping of the second tier of government in the country.

The union scribe said: “Worldwide 100 percent of the countries have local government areas. Oniy 45 percent of the countries in the world have state governments. So state government tier is the one that is not necessary; it should be scrapped because it is a tool being used to enrich the few to the disadvantage of the majority.

“Things have been extremely difficult for our members as a result of the non-payment of our salaries in the last eight months. The challenges range from health, death, withdrawal of our children from schools, eviction from houses to inability to access basic health facilities.

“Currently, 80 percent of the local government workers in the state are being owed between seven to eight months salaries, while the state government workers’ salaries have been paid up to date.

“That is why we are protesting against this callous treatment. Many of our members have died in the process.

“The problem emanated from this state government. The inclusion of schedules that do belong to local councils by the state government is responsible for our predicament. The schedules include the funding of the local government; non remittance of the federal government contribution and that of the state government to the pension board; the funding of the ‘so-called’ joint projects and they are deducting from source.

“Other schedule is the primary school funding rests squarely on the shoulders of local government areas in the state. That is why we are saying the state government wants to muzzle the councils out of existence because of their personal interest.”

But the state Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed in a statement issued by his media Aide, Dr. Muideen Akorede, declared that the state government was not  constitutionally responsible for the payment of the local government workers’ salaries.

The governor, however, called on the affected LG’s workers to be patient with his government and attributed the non-payment of their salaries to the sharp drop from the federal allocation to the state