Citizens of the United States of
America, US, working in the Nigerian civil service have cried out over 9 months
unpaid salaries by the Nigerian Government.
The US citizens have also been
evicted by their landlords while their property have been seized.
The National Director for High
Performance with the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development, Dr.
Angie Taylor in a Statement cried out to the Nigerian Government to come to
their aide as they are being owed over 9 months salaries and other emoluments.
Taylor said that she and her
colleagues were engaged to work in Nigeria since November 2013 by the Ministry
of Sports, and expressed disappointment that even as foreigners, they could be
treated in such a manner.
She said, “We have been owed our
salaries sincerely the beginning of January 2016 and it has been very
difficult, as some of us have taken up loans while others have even gone
bankrupt as I speak to you but the surprising thing is that nobody in the
ministry cares about what we are going through.”
“There are many occasions when we
are aware that they receive allocations and we approach them, they always told
us that there was no money, this is not good for us as we all have families in
the US, UK and also here in Nigeria that depends on us.
“We have met with the House
Committee to discuss this lack of payment of our salaries for over 9 months and
for the additional expected that we have incurred while working within the
ministry and also for housing rentals because so many of us have been evicted
from our homes by our Nigerian Landlords as well as personal properties being
seized just in August 2017, this is how bad we are suffering over this issue.
“We have tried very diligently
because we love this country and we are not trying to bring any embarrassment
to His Excellency President Buhari, so we decided to work quietly within the
Ministry because we admit that there is suffering going on in Nigeria and so we
want to be considerate.
“My humble appeal to H. E
President Buhari, the Honourable Minister Barr.Solomon Dalung and the
leadership of the National Assembly is that they would be faithful and pay us
based upon the legal binding contract that we signed and have good faith that
they would pay us so that we can stop the suffering.
“Now we understand how Nigerian
workers are suffering when they are owed for several months because we are in
the same situation today under the Ministry of Youths & Sports Development,
we are suffering even though We are foreigners just like the Nigerians working
with us who don’t have any other means of livelihood apart from the salaries
that they receive from the Ministry and it is not fair.”
While responding to the
consequences of What this situation may cause Nigeria in the next major sports
tournament, Mrs. Taylor insisted that despite these salaries’ backlogs, they
have not been deterred as they have continued to use these personal monies to
fund programs to take care of athletes because the athletes needed to be taken
good care of as much as possible throughout the duration of their employment
with the ministry. She said that the possibility of Nigeria not performing
optimally in the next Common Wealth Games in 2018 remains imminent if this
situation persists.
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