unpaid salaries running into months, there are now strong indications
that the state government has factually gone broke.
Following the complaints by various workers groups in the state for
some time now, Weekend Nigerian Horn embarked on a survey among
various classes of workers in the state. It was revealed by many of
the workers interviewed that the government has not paid salaries for
periods ranging between 6 months and 17 months.
The workers lamented that the precarious situation across the state
has caused them untold hardship, grossly affecting their standard of
living and concentration on their jobs.
A teacher in an Owerri based government primary school who pleaded for
anonymity told Weekend Nigerian Horn that for past six months teachers
in her school have not been paid salaries.
The situation which was thought to be at the primary school level was
discovered to also bedevil the tertiary sector where at the Imo State
University (IMSU), it was revealed that for the past three months the
staffs have not been paid salaries. The academic and non-academic
staff of IMSU are set to begin a strike action any time soon owing to
the non-payment of their three month salaries.
The staff of the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) had recently
overtly complained the non-payment of their salaries running into
several months despite their huge internally generated revenue. The
IBC staff berated the Chairman of the IBC Board, Chief Ifeanyi Olumba,
for frustrating the payment of their salaries.
At some of the ministries and parastatals visited by Weekend Nigerian
Horn it was the same tale of woes from the workers. While some say
they have not been paid for 6 months, some confided that they have not
been paid for 13 months, some said it has gone for 17 months since
their hands touched any salary, while some simply laughed it, hinting
that they cannot remember the last time they were paid any salary.
The recently elected Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC),
Comrade Austin Chilakpu had in an interview revealed that workers of
Imo Concorde Hotel, Imo Palm Plantation (Adapalm), Imo Transport
Corporation (ITC), Imo Rubber Company and Imo Newspapers Limited, all
owned by the state have not been paid salaries for over seven and half
months. He appealed to the state governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, to
have pity on the workers.
Earlier in the year some members of the outgoing 7th State House
Assembly publicly complained of non-payment of their salaries. The
affected members consequently dragged the state government to court.
A group that address themselves as Association of Imo Contractors have
been bewailing the non-payment of their contract fees by the state
government for contracts already executed, hinting that some of their
members had died while pursuing the payment, of which, according to
them, many of them borrowed the money they used for the contracts from
banks.
A top official in the State Ministry of Lands, Survey and Urban
Planning who spoke on condition that we do not mention their names
stated that other evidence that the state may actually be broke can be
noticed in the absolute discontinuation of virtually all roads that
have been under construction for over two years now.
He also referred us to the total suspension of work at the sites of
the twin-storey buildings being constructed in 305 wards in the state.
The respondent, who told Weekend Nigerian Horn that he is an Assistant
Director in the ministry, also pointed us to the stagnation of work at
the general hospitals that are being erected in the 27 local
government areas, asserting that it must be lack of funds that has
forestalled the continuation of work, completion and commissioning of
the hospitals.
To lend credence to the worrisome financial condition of the state,
Governor Okorocha on Tuesday at Abuja, while leading governors of the
All Progressives Congress (APC), both outgoing and incoming, on a
solidarity visit to the president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari,
stated that the inability by state governments to pay salaries was
because of the poor state of the Nigerian economy.
Moreover, in his May Day address to workers on Workers Day, Gov.
Okorocha encouraged workers in the state to begin to engage in small
scale businesses like farming to augment their salaries.
Read more at Horn:
http://nigerianhornnews.com/imo-govt-goes-broke/
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