'Resign now' - TUC tells salary-owing governors

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) on Thursday asked state governors owing workers’ salaries to resign from office or face the workers’ wrath.
TUC also condemned what it termed illegal recruitment going on in the civil service and other unresolved issues capable of affecting industrial peace and harmony in the public service.


The president of the Congress, Bobboi Bala Kaigama, while speaking at the 10th Triennial Delegates Conference of the Congress in Abuja, said it was a shame that after collecting huge bailout funds from the Federal Government, some state governors are still looking for loans from the World Bank.

He said: “It is a major cause for concern that some of our governors recently sought $3.2bn from the World Bank after recently collecting bailouts from the federal government. We are surprised at their behaviour especially as they claim to be on the side of the masses and workers.

“Although the law requires that workers be paid as and when due, several state governments owe as much as seven, eight and even nine months salaries of their workers, thus disobeying the law that they swore to obey to the letter. It is our candid position that any governor who cannot pay should resign immediately lest we make his state ungovernable for him.

“Is it not an irony for a governor who spends over N18,000 per month to fend for his dog to claim that he cannot pay same to his worker? The governors should realise that governance is about thinking out of the box, and the test of our progress as a country is not whether they add more to their personal abundance but whether they provide effectively for the have-nots in the society.

“The fact of the matter is that most of our governors are wicked to say the least. Otherwise they will not be behaving in a reckless manner where they refuse to pay salaries whereas their own families are enjoying the commonwealth of the people recklessly in foreign lands.”

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