At the moment, Nigeria is facing a salary arrears crisis as about 22 states owe workers salary arrears with some of them owing as much as a year's pay. With most governors having fought bitter election campaigns lately, federal allocations to the states have been used to fund their campaigns.
Unhappy with the situation, the NLC vice president Lucy Offiong, led a protest of the Plateau State chapter of the congress over non-payment of salaries of members by the state government yesterday. She said such a drastic measure as closing down airports had become imperative in order to compel governors to pay workers’ salaries in the affected states and alleviate their plight.
She added that shutting down the airports would deprive the governors the luxury of travelling by air while their workers suffered. Ms Offiong added: “Governors who are among the most frequent users of airports may need to be deprived of the facilities so that they would be moved to give their workers their monthly wage.”
Plateau State chairman of the NLC Jibrin Bancir, said the union took its protest to the state House of Assembly because it passed the state budget with a provision for workers’ salaries and should be able to compel the state governor to pay. Plateau workers, who had been on strike since May 4, are being owed six month's salary arrears.
Mr Bancir added: “I don’t know what the House of Assembly members are doing to provide relief to civil servants whose children are out of school and who cannot afford to feed their families. So, we are here to let the House know what workers are going through and to ask the House to prevail upon the governor to fulfil his obligations to the workers, including the payment of their salaries and other outstanding entitlements.”
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