All over the country civil servants are owed several months of salary. CELESTINE IHEJIRIKA, HAKEEM GBADAMOSI, JOE NWACHUKWU, JOHNSON BABAJIDE, YINKA OLADOYINBO, WALE AKINSELURE and Wole ige write on how these government workers have been coping without their monthly earnings.
THE death of Edward Soje, a level 16 civil servant in Kogi State, who reportedly committed suicide allegedly over unpaid salaries, caused more than a stir across the nation. The death raised further concern over the worsening state of workers, particularly civil servants across the states, who have been suffering the brunt of half salary or owed backlogs by their states.
With salary debts mounting across the states, it is being said that the workers are indeed going through unsavoury situations. It is even being said that many workers have suffered loss and death that have either not been reported or underreported.
But how have these workers who are being owed months of salary been surviving? What kind of survival strategies have they adopted?
Apart from the poor state of the economy drastically affecting salaries of workers, many states are owing backlogs leading to severe economic pressures on breadwinners.
While some breadwinners have devised survival methods by simply using what they have to generate supplementary income to the salaries that have become as seriously irregular and erratic as electricity supply. For many workers, going to the office has become a nightmare as they would need to go there by either using their depleting meagre resources or borrowing from friends and relatives.
In Imo, for instance, the state government tried to find a way around its inability to pay full regular salary by asking workers to come to work for only three days in the week and spend the remaining two days for themselves to supplement their salaries. The state government had in the heat of the economic downturn reduced the salaries of workers by 30 per cent.
A civil servant with the Ministry of Works and Transport in the state, Mr. Isaac Amadi, told Sunday Tribune that he has since been spending two days of the week to run his transport business. Amadi owns a tricycle which he uses to ferry passengers as a way to boost his income.
“I make a lot of money, because I make use of Thursday to Sunday to augment the shortfall from the 70 per cent salary I receive monthly from the government,” he disclosed to Sunday Tribune, pointing out that he needed the extra income to support his family of eight. According to him, two of his six children are already in university while three are in secondary school. The last one, he stated, is still in primary school.
“There is no way I could cope with such huge responsibility with the small salary I now receive, which has been reduced by 30 per cent,” he explained.
Mrs. Chidinma Okoro, who works with Imo State Ministry of Education, does not have a tricycle like Amadi to make extra money, but she told Sunday Tribune that by the evening of every Wednesday, she is already in her village tending to her farm. According to her, she uses the proceeds from the farm to sustain her family.
In her own reaction Mrs. Angela Nwafor a member of staff in the Ministry of Agriculture said she spends her own two days to trade. she said she has since developed a strong passion for trading as she now sells oranges, groundnuts, tomatoes and plantains on her free days.
But while Nwafor and others may have found a way round their irregular salaries, Mr. Geoffrey Nosike, on his own part is still not happy about the 30 per cent reduction in his salary and its irregularity. He wants the policy reversed. According to him, since the country is now making more money through crude oil sale whose price has increased significantly at the international market, there is no reason government should continue with the excuse of paucity or lack of fund. He wants the state government to pay him his full salary.
Like Nosike, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nnamdi is equally unhappy about the reduced salary. He wants the state government to ameliorate the suffering of workers by reversing the policy and start paying workers their full salary.
From buying and selling to farming… government workers must survive
When issues over salaries began in Kogi State between the state government and Labour, a civil servant from Okene, Abubakar Salihu, envisaged that the issue might not be resolved too soon. So he took a soft loan from a micro finance bank, relocated to his home town and started selling foodstuffs in the market.
From the proceeds, Salihu has been able to take care of his family and pay his children’s school fees.
For Ahmed Seidu, his personal motorcycle has now been put to use for commercial purposes and he is not regretting it. That singular decsion, according to him, has relieved him of financial pressures. The daily proceeds from the business have filled the huge hole in his salary account and enabled him to fend for his family.
James Adarelegbe, a secondary school teacher, has his own story to tell too. Hunger, he claimed, has since forced him to return to Isanlu, his hometown, to start farming.
Adaralegbe disclosed that he was being owed 15 months salary by the state government. In order for his family not to starve to death, said he said farming became the surest option for him to explore to feed himself and take care of some of his bounding responsibilities.
«I now plant maize and cassava to survive since government stopped paying me,» he stated.
Ondo State civil servants are also facing similar hardship as workers in other parts of the country. As an agrarian state, many of them have taken to farming to survive the hard times.
Though the state government argues that the five months of salaries it is owing is carried over from the immediate past administration, many of the workers explained that they had borrowed more than expected in their expectations of the owed salaries.
The case of Mr. Sunday Mogbonjubola and his wife is complex. Both he and his wife are civil servants. That is why he had to double his efforts to make ends meet. He is into farming, bricklaying and other menial jobs. He said he is, in fact, into anything that could bring money home.
«My wife and I are civil servants with the state government and we rely solely on our salaries. We had to take to farming; my wife also sells foodstuffs from the loan she obtained from a finance company.
«Though she started on a small scale but we were able to refund the loan and the business is booming. We survive on that and spend the proceeds to send our kids to school,» he told Sunday Tribune.
Mr Bisi Ayoola, recounting how he has been managing to survive and the measure he took, said after taking a long hard look at the trend of events, he decided to take a difficult decision. He sold one of his cars and a plot of land to ensure that his children’s school fees are paid. His other car is now being used for commercial purposes.
“I usually leave home before 6:00a.m to do kabukabu from Akure to Owo or Ado-Ekiti. I usually do that twice in a day and we use that to keep body and soul together,” he narrated, disclosing that some of their co-workers, who could not cope with the situation have taken to begging.
Tomiwa, another civil servant is now a part-time commercial motorcyclist due to unpaid salaries. “Initially it was not an easy job, but with time I adjusted and I can tell you that we are living fine because our daily meal is assured even though it’s stressful.
“That’s what I do every evening after the close or work. Many of the state workers also do the business,” he said.
Benue’s every other month salary
In Benue State, school teachers and local government staff and civil servants are being owed a backlog of nine and six months of salary arrears respectively and they receive their salaries every other month.
For Madam Eunice Terkura, a single parent and mother of three, it has been tedious taking care of her family all by herself.
“This is a hard time for us civil servants in Benue State,” she told Sunday Tribune, adding: “It is extremely difficult to boast of one square meal per day. What used to be the staple food for civil servants, garri and akpu, are now out of reach. Mostly, we eat once a day. In fact, I have sent two of my children to my old mother in the village.”
Terkura said further that she was forced to take the option of sending two of her children to the village as she could not afford their tuition fees and is also owing her landlord rent.
Andrew Otese, a primary school teacher in Naka, Gwer West local government of the state says he had been “surviving by the grace of God.”
“The only saving grace for me is farming. In fact, I can tell you that most of the teachers in rural communities have ventured into farming to support their families, else, things would have become worse.”
But Pa Joseph Adaji, a driver in the state civil service, still appears to have not found an escape route from the no-salary trap. It was a rain of lamentation while speaking with Sunday Tribune. He confessed that things are very tough for him and his family members.
“This is the toughest time in my life since the past 27 years I joined civil service. Meeting up with my responsibilities at home has become difficult.
“I think I’m part of the problem; if not, why should someone like me have two wives with nine children?” Pa Adaji queried.
Due to the tough situation, he said he had sent his two wives and children to the village to farm. He now finds the time to join them in the village to work in the farm.
Civil servants in Osun State are not faring better. Those on Levels 1-7 are getting their full pay without being owed, but those on Levels 8-10 only get 75 per cent of their pay, a situation which had remained so since two years ago. Those on Levels 11-17 only receive 50 per cent of their pay and like their counterparts on Levels 8-10 they are being owed months of salary arrears.
Their survival strategies are simple and they include cutting their expenses on almost everything. Some have also moved children from expensive schools to less expensive ones.
As in other states where workers are not being paid up to date, bread winners in Oyo State are under pressure to keep up with their responsibilities and pay up their debts to banks and their cooperative societies.
A civil servant, who simply wanted to be identified as Ayo over fear of retribution, said he has not been able to pay his children’s school fees.
“I am unable to pay my children’s school fees on time. My daughter was sent out of school when she was about to start her exam and I had to borrow money to pay her fees. I borrowed money from a microfinance bank and the money is usually deducted whenever I get salary. Also, I regularly have to borrow money to fuel my vehicle because of inconsistent salary,” he said.
Several other civil servants have not been able to perform their responsibilities ranging from payment of house rent to taking care of their families, buying drugs to take care of themselves and even basic needs for the family such as feeding. Some who want to further their education are presently incapacitated financially.
“I must confess that catering for my family has been challenging. It has not been easy to provide for the needs of the family. Some of us are not living up to our responsibilities, like regular payment of children’s school fees, as before. My cousin can’t pay his house rent,” Akande, another civil servant told Sunday Tribune.
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