Unpaid Salaries: Workers Beg To Eat As Hard Times Bites Nationwide

             It has been tales of woes among civil servants across the country as the pains of unpaid workers crisis continues to bite harder.

             To survive, civil workers in many states have adopted different strategies to survive months of unpaid salaries in their states.

The strategies include begging for money from friends and relatives, securing loans from different sources and doing menial jobs to survive.

State governments especially those led by the opposition All Progressives Congress have continued blame game with the Federal Government over the unpaid salaries of workers.

While the states attributed the development to the drop in federal allocations to them, the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, accused them of not prioritising salary payments

OYO STATE.

Punch Reported that In Oyo State, for instance, where the government has not paid salaries for three months, some civil servants skip their lunch daily.

A few others, it was gathered, however report to their duty posts with garri and groundnuts which serve as their lunch.

A civil srvant confided, “I have seen some junior workers taking garri and groundnuts as lunch. We have been told that   dwindling allocation from the Federal Government was responsible for the salary delay. We hope for a change when(Muhammadu) Buhari takes over.”

A vice-principal in one of the secondary schools in Ibadan also   told one of our correspondents that it had become a habit for some teachers to ask him   for money every day.

He said, “My teachers come to me for money every day but I don’t have enough to give to them. I rely on my wife’s business to keep my home running.I have three children in tertiary institutions and one of them is now at home.

A secondary school teacher also lamented the development, saying that   some of her colleagues who have cars no longer drive them to school.

She said, “Those of us who do not have   cars used to   rely on our senior colleagues who have to take us to our nearest bus stops. But now,   we   walk to the bus stops   because they no longer   bring their cars to school due to the high cost of   fuel.”

OSUN STATE

The non-payment of salaries by the Osun State Government for the past six months has also forced many civil servants into ‘forced fasting’ and selling jewellery as well as household appliances.

Some of the workers also do not go to work more than twice or three times in a week due to lack of funds.

A local government worker, who identified herself simply as Kemi,   said, “ We have a roster in my office. We rotate it among ourselves, some would go on Mondays and others on Tuesdays.   I don’t go to the office more than once in a week because of lack of transport fare.”

CROSS RIVERS STATE

The case of Cross River State workers is no less different.   Some of them, who are owed between two and six months’ salaries, told The PUNCH  that apart from getting loans from private individuals and financial institutions, they beg for foodstuffs from their relatives and friends.

A director in the state Ministry of Information, said, “It is different strokes for different folks. Some people get support from their relatives and the well-to-do who understand their plight. Others borrow to make ends meet, especially to pay the school fees of their children and wards.

A worker with the state Ministry of Education, who asked not to be named, said, “ They have turned us to beggars. We have not been paid for   months now and this has made some of us to be begging for food items. This government has not been treating us well. They are making us to lose our dignity as breadwinners of our families.”

PLATEAU STATE

In Plateau State, striking civil servants said that their survival had been at the mercy of God.

It was gathered that some of   them   had taken to menial jobs to raise money to feed their families while some had turned their children and wards to hawkers.

One of the workers said, I work in the Ministry of Health but it has not been easy for many of us who are not professionals to survive because we are being owed for many months. Some of us have taken to doing menial work like cleaning the homes of some rich people in order to maintain our families. But I help my big friends to do laundry work every weekend in order to raise money.”

The Chairman of the state chapter of the NLC,   Jibrin Bancir, said that some of them had borrowed beyond their limits from different sources.

ABIA STATE

Some workers in Abia State parastatals also expressed displeasure over their unpaid wages   and appealed to the outgoing Theodore Orji government for quick intervention.

An employee of the state Universal Basic Education Board   in Umuahia, who said they had not been paid for the past six months, stated that they had been surviving “by the grace of God.”

He said he had to start up a “ small business centre where I do some photocopying works to keep body and soul together.’’

Similarly, another worker with the ASUBEB   said she   had been “living on credit.”

She said, “I have a huge debt and more than four members of my colleagues have died because they could no longer cope.”

When contacted, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Anthony Agbazuere, said the government had always rationalised its  resources in such a way that no civil servant in the Ministries was being owed.

He however pleaded with workers in the parastatals to exercise a little patience as their salary arrears would be paid as soon as the state’s revenue improved.