The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has called on state governments that are still owing workers salaries to resign now to avoid disgrace come 2019 election. The Labour Centre added that it is unfair and inhuman for governors after sharing a total of N1.9trillion and Budget Support Facilities since the inception of this administration to fail to meet their obligations.
In a statement, President of congress, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama and Secretary General, Comrade (Barr.) Musa-Lawal Ozigi, mni, lamented that instead of paying workers, governors are busy buying properties all over the world. “One wonders how they (governors) sleep at night while the people they govern go to bed hungry, sick and have their wards out of school.”
The labour leaders who commended the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo and the Senator representing Kaduna State Central, Shehu Sani for their recent revelations on monies released to state governments and a fraction of the take home of senators, noted that the public as well as the international community is now abreast of how politicians and cronies rape our national patrimony while the masses live in abject poverty. For us, this revelation is an eye opener and we are going to mobilise members throughout the country to ensure that defaulting governors seeking re-election and even those who have served out their second term but want to impose a stooge will not be allowed to emerge, but face perdition come 2019.
Kaigama said: “a position of leadership requires deep thinking and a lot of creativity. The managerial skill of a leader shows when he or she is faced with challenges like what we have in most states presently. A lot of governors are not thinking out of the box simply because they know federal allocation is certain. They are not even paying deductions from workers’ salaries in some cases for up to six, seven, eight months. They only pay net, not gross, yet they claim to be conscientious leaders. ‘’
The world over, salaries are on first line charge but in Nigeria we have a reversal of best practices. All workers, pensioners and all the deprived groups are hereby advised to possess their PVC and together we shall boot out irresponsibility from our system.
