Alleged N3bn bail out money tears Kwara apart

The economic lull plaguing the administration of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State has infected every strata of the state apparatus   in  a  manner the residents have not experienced in recent time.

In the open markets, sellers and buyers bitterly complain   about  bad business and lack of purchasing power.

More than 90 percent of those, who ordinarily should patronize the sellers – government workers are being owed salaries ranging from two to seven months.

For instance the Kwara State owned Colleges of Education in Oro and Ilorin are being owed five and seven months salaries respectively while that of College of Arabic and Islamic Studies (CAILS), Ilorin has been paying it’s workforce half salaries in the last seven months.

The staff of Kwara state television,Radio Kwara and Herald Newspapers among others are also complaining as they are all being owed three months salaries by the end of July 2015.

The worst hit are the council workers who are being owed seven months salaries and are calling on the traditional rulers and other stakeholders to plead with  Ahmed to pay them.

The case of Kwara State Polytechnic i s the only   exception because of its robust financial standing.

The failure of the state government to pay the salaries  before  the celebration of Eid-El-Fitri  was particularly   a monumental disappointment for the Muslims in particular who had expected a big relief after 30days of fasting.

It was, however, a big relief, though short lived, to the workers and  residents when the news of the bail out by the Federal Government  to the states to pay the workers salaries filtered into Ilorin.

Consequent upon the dull celebration of the Eid-El-Fitri by majority of the Muslims workers in the state, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Monday,   took  the gauntlet when  it accused the governor of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of diverting the over N3 billion  bail out from Federal Government  into private uses.

The party described the alleged  diversion as criminally insensitive and a total negation of the spirit behind the release of the fund by the Federal Government.

This is contained in an “Alert” sent   by the Publicity Secretary of the PDP,  Chief Rex Olawoye, to all labour unions  in the state, demanding  that the state government should be made to account for the amount which it claimed had been paid into the account of the state government since July 8,2015.

The opposition party, therefore, called on the national leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress; Radio, Television and Theater Workers Union of Nigeria (RATAWU); Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE);  Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN);  the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT); and   ASUP,  whose members are the worst hit in Kwara, to prevail over the state government to immediately commence the payment of  the arrears of salaries, allowances and pensions of workers without further delay to ameliorate the suffering of the civil servants in the state.

But in a swift reaction,Special Assistant to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed on Media and Communications,Dr Muideen  Akorede, in a  statement, faulted the accusation of the opposition PDP ).

“Kwara State government has dismissed  the insinuation that it had diverted the N2.1b received recently from the Federal Government,” the statement said.

The statement further denied receiving N3b from the central government, stressing that it had only received its share of the NLNG dividend  distributed to all tiers of government.

Akorede particularly noted that the state government had neither received a bail out from the Federal Government nor the N3b claimed by the opposition party.

On the issue of alerting the public about how much was received, Ahmed’s aide said government officials informed officials of the state chapters of the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) during meetings held last week to update them on the funds received and how they will be utilized, adding that the information was also in the public domain.

Akorede  clarified the  Kwara share of the NLNG  dividend was inadequate to cover monthly obligations which he put at N2.6b.

These obligations, he said, include the salaries of civil servants, teachers, pensions, gratuities and subventions to its various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies as well as tertiary institutions.

He added that while government regards the payment of salaries as a  priority, it was also necessary to fund other key people-oriented programs.

Speaking on the expected bail out from the Federal Government,in particular, the governor’s aide said it  was expected to come in the form of a N300b loan to restructure debts owed by it  a soft loan to enable them pay salary arrears.

He described as unpatriotic and wicked the PDP’s attempt to politicize workers plight  which, he re-emphasised, was caused by dwindling FAAC receipts occasioned by the drop in global oil prices.

The situation took a twist, on Wednesday, when the state secretary of  the NULGE,Comrade Abayomi Afolabi, called on  traditional rulers and other stakeholders in the state to urgently intervene in order to rescue the situation,giving a graphic details of the sufferings being experienced by the workers over the unpaid salaries.

Afolabi  explained that most NULGE  members had withdrawn their children from school as they could no longer  pay school fees, adding that they were indebted to so food sellers, landlords, etc.

The local government workers, who said several efforts made to the concerned authorities over the salary issue had not yielded results, added that they had written letters to the state government on the matter without any action being taken.