Resident Doctors, NMA Not Persuaded
ORGANISED labour in Osun State may have decided to sheathe daggers over unpaid salaries, as the state government and labour recently reached an agreement on modality for settlement of workers’ salaries in the face of dwindling resources, without recourse to street protest.

Already, the state governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has commenced payment of salaries to the state workers and pension to retirees. This was made possible courtesy of about N34.9b released to the state by the Federal Government for the settlement of arrears of salaries and entitlement of pensioners.

The fund had raised dust between the government and opposition parties. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had, in fact, alleged that Aregbesola wanted to divert the money to settle contractors to the detriment of the workforce and welfare of Osun people.

The party also alleged that Aregbesola’s administration had kept the fund in a fixed bank account in order to generate interest. To the party, the ploy by the governor negated the condition set by the Federal Government to offset backlog of salaries.

The state government, however, debunked the opposition’s claim, attributing the initial delay in payment to the then ongoing staff audit conducted by labour leaders and government representatives.

The outcome of the staff audit still remains a secret, which the opposition has frowned at. The state government puts the monthly wage bill at N3.6b, which has been contested by the opposition, which insists that the state’s overhead cost is far less.

The argument is that Osun is expected to have a lower wage bill going by the number of workers who retired from the service in recent years. The government, however, maintained that the wage bill jumped up to the quoted figure due to the minimum wage implemented by the Aregbesola administration.

Be that as it may, the average Osun worker wants to know what happened to the bailout facility and accumulated fund from the Federation Account during the period when the state was unable to pay salaries.

They claim many workers would be left with little or nothing by the time banks make deductions in form of cooperative contribution and other commitments out of the few months paid to them by the government.

Besides, the workers said many of them are already indebted to school proprietors and other creditors, as they were unable to pay school fees of their children and wards, rent and settlement of electricity bills due to unpaid salaries.

The Guardian gathered that the government has been able to pay salaries to civil servants up to May, while workers across the 30 local councils and the Area Office in Modakeke-Ife had also collected wages up to June.

Senior citizens who have staged protests over unpaid pension and gratuities have collected two months entitlement from the bailout fund.

The state government said what the workers have collected so far marks the beginning and that subsequent payment would be made, because it is being released in tranches with an agreement reached with labour leaders.

However, medical doctors working in the state employ, under the aegis of National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and lecturers in tertiary institutions in the state have dissociated themselves from a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between labour leaders and government, describing the agreement as ‘satanic’. The two bodies have demanded payment of all outstanding salaries, including all deductions made.

The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), who had also issued a seven-day ultimatum to the state government over the salary issue, supported NARD’s position.

As part of survival measures after the bailout, the state government has increased its drive to increase revenue through various measures to enhance payment of taxes by the citizens.

The government has appointed veteran labour leader and one time Secretary General of the Organisation of African Trade Unions (OATU), Comrade Hassan Sunmonu as chairman of Committee of Government and Labour to handle allocation of state’s revenue to enhance prompt payment of salaries and adequate running of government after the bailout.

The committee is specifically saddled with apportionment of net revenue accruing from the Federation Account and Internally Generated Revenue.

Aregbesola noted that the financial tsunami that swept through the federation, beginning from July 2013 and ravaged the entire country crippled the finances of states and the Federal Government, making payment of salaries very difficult.

He said, “what many do not realise was that the governmental system of
The whole country was under mortal threat, and not only Osun. It might interest us to know that the government of Goodluck Jonathan, according to his Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had to borrow N476b from commercial banks to be able to pay salaries in the last four months of the administration.”

The governor noted that all warnings to the realities of the Nigerian economy were ignored adding that those who should know also cried out but were ignored.

The governor stressed that the present situation of government calls for toughness, saying his administration will critically look at the next 24 months to take the state through the stormy weather.

Comrade Sunmonu stated that the welfare of workers and the people of the state was the major objective of setting up the committee, adding that the body will work tirelessly to make sure everything comes to success.