The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)
has asked state governors to prioritise their activities and ensure that they
use final tranche of Paris Club refund to pay workers’ salaries and pension.
The Federal Government on
Saturday confirmed the release of the final tranche of the Paris Club
refund to 27 state governments.
However, in his reaction on
Sunday, President of the Congress, Comrade Abubakar Wabba told journalists that
those governors who have refused to pay salaries and pension were not doing so
because of the lack of money, but because they have not considered the payment
of salaries as a priority.
Wabba said the governors should
know that it was in their own interest to pay workers and pensioners their
entitlements.
He noted that social consequence
of not paying was glaring in those states because of the rise in criminal
activities there.
He said: “Most of the governors
have abuse the trust of the President Muhammadu Buhari, especially those that
are not paying. They will go begging that once the money is released, they will
use it to pay salaries. This is about the third episode.
“The Chairman of the Governors
Forum once made a promise publicly that they were going to use the money to pay
salaries. Even in his own state, he did not use the money to address Labour
issues. So, we are tired of this whole deceit of going to beg the President
because they know he is passionate about workers and pensioners.
“They will get money and come
back to do something different. In states where they are not paying salaries
and pension, you have seen what is happening with the rate of crime on the increase
and people dying from starvation and frustration, while kidnapping is on the
increase.
“Our position usually is that
they should prioritise the payment of workers and pensioners entitlement
because there is no way you can have peace and development if workers
entitlements are not being paid. It is arising from that that the President has
continually told them to go and settle these liabilities.
“We hope that with the little
commitment they have made, it will work out this time around. If they pay, fine,
but if they don’t pay, they should also know that they will not receive the
support of the workers and pensioners. Right now, there are about nine states
that are in this situation and we use this medium to thank those governors that
are paying as and when due.
“If they don’t pay, we have said
it over and over again those workers should vote them out. They should know
that if they don’t pay, the workers will not support them and if they pay, the
workers will be happy and support them. That is the position we have taken long
before now and that position has not changed.
“For governors that have done
well, we have asked workers to go and support them. It is actually in their own
interest to settle all categories of workers so that workers can support them and
also be very productive.”
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com