12 states owe salaries despite bailout

No fewer than 12 states are still owing their workers a backlog of salaries and allowances, despite double bailout funds from the Federal Government, with Kogi State owing as many as 15 months, Vanguard investigations have revealed.

Also on the list of heavily indebted states are Osun, 12 months; Kwara, 11; Bayelsa, 7; Ondo, 7; Ekiti, 6; and Oyo, 6.

Others are Benue State, 4 months; Nasarawa State, 2; Abia, 2; Imo, 2; as well as several months of unpaid allowances and Ogun State, which owes over six months of unremitted deductions from workers’ salaries for cooperatives, union dues, among others. 

This revelation came as Organised  Labour accused the Federal Government of owing civil servants a whopping N290 billion promotion arrears, lamenting that all efforts at making the government pay had not yielded any positive result. 

Giving an overview of the salary situations across the states, Secretary-General of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, Bashir Alade Lawal, told Vanguard that some states were still defaulting in payment, in spite of the huge bailout received from the Federal Government. 

He said:  “Osun State is owing one year, Ekiti is owing six months, Oyo is owing six months, Ondo is owing seven months; Beyelsa is owing seven months; Abia, two months; Benue four months; Kogi 15 months; Nasarawa three months. 

‘’Ogun can claim it is not owing but it is not paying deductions from workers’ salaries in some cases, six, seven, eight months.  They are only paying net, not gross.  So, if you have paid net and you have not paid all deductions, you have not paid full salaries. 

‘’As at today, Anambra is not owing, likewise Borno, Delta, Edo, Ebonyi, Cross River, Rivers, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Lagos, Niger, Plateau, Taraba, Zamfara and Sokoto. 

“Anywhere in the world, you pay workers’ salaries first before doing anything else. For example, in Osun State, some senior staff are being owed over two years allowances. In order words, you can simply say they are being owed one year salaries. What are the explanations?  ‘’Bailout has been given about three times and the last one with clear directive from the Federal Government for the states to focus on salaries and pensions, but Osun State government claimed that government was not instructed to use the entire bailout to pay workers’ salaries.” 

In Kwara State, Vanguard gathered that the government has not paid staff in the parastatals in the state up to March, 2017 and that the last time workers were paid was February 2017.