Indefinite Workers’ Strike in Benue State: No Need for Pay-Cuts-Benue APC Statement
The people of Benue State woke up, July 31, 2014 to realize that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) had declared an indefinite strike. The strike action is in protest over the unilateral, illegal and criminal deduction of salaries of workers in Benue State on the instruction of the Executive Governor, Gabriel Suswam in spite of position of the organized labour to resist such an attempt by government.
In addition, the organized labour is demanding for the payment of minimum wage to pensioners as well as the implementation of 15 per cent and 2.5 per cent increment to pensioners. Primary school teachers in the state are yet to enjoy the full implementation of the minimum wage and the TSS.
The organized labour is also calling on the state government to refund excess tax deductions from its member since 2011 and refund all deductions made in respect of the National Housing Fund. They are asking for the payment of leave and transport grant arrears owed its members in the last three years.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State considers as callous, the action of the PDP-led State Government to deduct salaries of workers without their consent or at least that of the Unions. Workers in the state deserve to be paid their salaries as long as the state continues to receive her own share of the federation allocation. These workers depend on their salaries for survival and must be paid in full and as when due.
The APC therefore call on the PDP Government of Rt. Hon. Gabriel Suswam to immediately rescind this heartless decision that is designed to cause hardship to the workers and people of the state. A reasonable government needed to have provided answers to questions now asked by Benue people such: Is this a mandatory or voluntary pay-cut? By how much and by what scale have the salaries being lowered? Was there any civil service circular for this pay-cut? Will there be retroactive reimbursement? How will this affect raises, bonuses and benefits?
We urge Governor Gabriel Suswam to channel the money he is using to procure endorsements for his Senatorial ambition to the plight of workers in the state and other useful ventures. Of late, the PDP’s insensitivity and desperation has seen the Governor use unimaginable sums of money to buy over some food-is-ready politicians in the state and organize elaborate decamping ceremonies for them. Could it not have been better to use such monies for the plight of workers?
The Governor may not need pay-cuts if he disengages the over 1,000 Aides and Assistants who collect salaries and other perquisites from government with neither schedules nor offices. Further, the Governor has earned notoriety as the most travelled and absentee Governor in the country, always embarking on meaningless and unworthy foreign trips that see him permanently out of the state and have earned him the acronym “NEW NYANYA” from helpless Benue people.
Annually, the Governor sponsors large delegation of party stalwarts to America to attend Mutual Union of Tiv in America (MUTA) conventions. All these attract millions of Dollars in estacode for heartless party Chieftains and government officials to luxuriate lavishly while workers suffer pay-cuts.
It is a fact that monumental and condoned corruption in the government of Rt. Hon. Gabriel Torwua Suswam, has necessitated pay-cuts and all sorts of deductions to the anguish and pain of workers while the Benue landscape is dotted with state-of-the-art houses, hotels, filling stations and all sorts of businesses, all traced to either Suswam, members of his family or few favoured Aides or, to some cronies acting in his behalf.
The PDP Government of Gabriel Suswam has since inception in 2007 neglected Benue’s endowment in agriculture, which, if fully exploited, can make it the envy of other states. Suswam should distance himself from the retrogressive idea that the only way to make the state buoyant is by adjusting the revenue formula in their favour. This is the rent-seeking mentality that has made the states indolent, always waiting for the month to end to rush to Abuja to collect their allocations.
Above all, why has Governor Suswam consistently persisted in the lie of the state’s inability to pay wages when the facts and figures indicate that the state’s total earnings from Federal Allocation in the form of Domestic Crude Account, excess crude account, VAT, and Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) stand at about N75 billion annually, averaging about N6.2 billion monthly? While the Local Governments of the state collect on the average about N3.4 billion monthly in the face of a total monthly wage bill of N1.1 billion for primary school teachers, N1.7 billion for Local Government workers and about N2.6 billion for those in the employment of the State Government?
We challenge Governor Suswam to publish revenue accruals to the state and local governments and equally publish monthly wage bills of same for the public to know.
What we need in Benue is not pay-cuts, what we actually need in Benue is cuts in Suswam’s reckless spending and corrupt engagements.
Hon. Onov Tyuulugh Comrade Abba Yaro
State Secretary APC State Chairman APC
