By Tejiri Ebikeme/Francis Sadhere/Omos Oyinbode
Some Local Government workers in Delta State actually resorted to begging to feed their families, no thanks to their unpaid salaries.
The workers were on May 11, 2015 ordered by the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) to proceed on strike action to protest their unpaid salaries spanning over six months.
Narrating their plight to our Correspondents, some of the Delta State Local Government workers, said they resorted to begging to keep body and soul together.
The workers pleaded that their names should not be in print.
They informed our correspondents that most of them went borrowing at a time in order to keep their families intact and to send their children to school.
A worker in one of the affected councils told The National Reformer Newspaper that “We have really being choked up in these last six months without salaries. It has been very tough for council workers in Delta State. It has not been easy surviving the hardship; most of us resorted to begging to survive, we swallowed our pride and took to begging in order to stay alive.”
Another council worker in Uvwie Local Government Area, while narrating his ordeal stated that “We have been surviving by the special grace of God. It has been very difficult for us and our families. Do you know what it takes to be without salaries for over six months? We went begging from church to church; we begged our relatives to survive us; we threw our pride away and took to begging as a result of our unpaid salaries.”
In Warri South Council, a worker averred that “We have been suffering. It has been tough for council workers in the last six months in Delta State. I borrowed money from friends and relations. Some of my colleagues also resorted to begging to survive the hardship and we pray that we should not witness this type of situation again.”
A council worker in Ethiope East Local Government Area of the state, while speaking with our Correspondents posited that; “It has been tough and rough for council workers in the last six months. Our children were sent away from school because of school fees. We resorted to borrowing and begging to survive. At a point, I was ashamed of myself. Now, most council workers have borrowed heavily from banks and cooperative societies. We are on loans already and so by the time, we are paid what they have agreed to pay now, nothing would have changed positively for Delta State local government workers. We have sent whatever that they are going to pay us now and you see, we are back to square one and the borrowing and the outright begging to survive the hard time continues.”
Meanwhile, after 65 days of arrested development occasioned by unpaid salaries, the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Delta State Chapter, has suspended its two months old industrial action.
Announcing the suspension of the strike which had crippled the activities of the 25 local government councils in the state, NULGE President and Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade David Ofoeyeno, followed the intervention of the state governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.
Comrade Ofoeyeno, who disclosed that the governor has released funds enough to settle at least three months salary backlog, however, noted that the agitation was still on by the NULGE and other stakeholders to find permanent solution to the lingering problem besetting the local government administration as a tier of government.
“The suspension of the strike action was a result of the intervention, interest and commitment of our amiable governor, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa in making sure that the issue is resolved and local government workers get their entitlement like their counterparts at the state level”, he said.
While calling on local government workers in the state to resume work immediately, the NULGE boss also urged the governor to look at the possibility of state government taking over the payment of primary school teachers’ salaries as a short term measure while a permanent solution is being sought out.
Ofoeyeno, who said that the union would monitor the development in the next four months to ensure that such ugly experience does not occur again, warning that they may be forced to resume the strike.
According to him, NULGE as a body has put strategies in place to monitor the disbursement of the fund to ensure that it’s not diverted
but fully utilized for the purpose it’s meant for, saying that as a
watchdog, the position is that any council that does contrary would be
picketed.
Those councils that did not take part in the strike action are
Patani; Warri South-West; Burutu and Warri North Local Government
Areas.
