Food for thought for anybody that cares; "The civil servants constitute
the vast majority of voters... Win thier heart then you win their votes"..
Speaking about them Some federal and state workers face bleak Christmas as they
are being owed October and November salaries and the possibility of them receiving
their December salaries before Christmas is also grim.
Correspondents on Thursday learnt that federal and state agencies that
managed to pay salaries of their workers were still owing pensioners. Findings
revealed on Thursday thatthe latest drop in oil revenue has taken a further toll on the nation’s economy.
Nigeria witnessed a decline of N36.6bn in gross revenue from N536.69bn
received in the month of October to N500.07bn in November.The figures were
contained in a communique issued on Tuesday shortly after the Federation
Account Allocation Committee meeting which was presided over by the Minister of
State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda.
The communique attributed the decline in revenue to drastic drop of 33 per
cent in export volume between September and October 2014 and a further drop in
crude oil price from $87.78 in October. Figures obtained from the website of
the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Tuesday put the price of
crude oil at $57.92 per barrel.
Findings by The PUNCH showed that the delay in paying salaries might not be
unconnected with the shortfall in government oil revenue. Following the failure
of the Federal Government to pay some of its workers, the Association of Senior
Civil Servants of Nigeria, said it would ask its members to embark on a
nationwide strike if the Federal Government failed to pay the October and
November salary arrears.
While calling on government to use the N9.2bn earmarked to buy stoves for
“rural women” to offset the October and November salaries as well as that of
December, the ASCSN urged the government to pay the affected workers before
Christmas or “face the wrath of Nigerian workers.”
The Secretary-General of ASCSN, Mr. Alade Lawal, in a statement in Abuja on
Thursday, expressed sadness that the Federal Government had not been able to
pay thousands of civil servants for almost three months. He said, “As we write,
information reaching us from informed quarters indicate that about 30
Ministries, Departments and Agencies will not pay December 2014 salaries to
their employees. “It is very unfortunate that since Oc
tober 2014, the Federal
Ministries of Agriculture, Education, Works, Labour and Productivity as well as
a host of other MDAs have not paid salaries to their workers.”
The ASCSN lamented that the reality on the ground was that “thousands of
civil servants and their dependants would celebrate the Christmas and New Year
in sorrow.” The union therefore called on President Goodluck Jonathan to
intervene in the matter and ensure that civil servants were paid three-month
salaries before the Yuletide so as to put smile on their faces. “We cannot
understand how N9.2bn would be spent on stoves while workers who toil daily to
keep the wheels of government functioning cannot be paid their meagre
salaries”, the ASCSN stated.
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