Cleric urges Bayelsa Govt to clear 6 months salary arrears to avert ‘wrath of God’ as Govt, workers disagree on amount owed
FeaturedNigeria March 7, 2017 Arodiegwu Eziukwu
Gov. Dickson
A clergyman, Rev. T. Y Emmanuel, has urged the Bayelsa government to clear outstanding backlog of salaries owed to workers in the state to avert the wrath of God.
The cleric gave the advice on Thursday during a Church Service to commemorate the first anniversary of Governor Seriake Dickson’s second tenure in office.
Emmanuel who was the guest preacher at the thanksgiving service as part of the weeklong activities to mark Dickson’s fifth anniversary advised the governor to take solace in God.
“God is angry when you don’t pay workers. God has asked me to tell you that the hired servants should be properly paid”, he said.
He said the assignment given by God to public leadership was for a purpose and the purpose was to serve God and benefit mankind.
Emmanuel who titled his sermon ‘Make God Your Refuge’ quoted copiously from various books in the Bible including Psalm 127, James 5:1-5 and Deuteronomy 24:14-15 to illustrate his sermon.
The clergyman said it was important for the government to appreciate the essence of God’s purpose for instituting government authority for mankind.
“When God gives a man leadership, there is an assignment he wants to fulfill., every government is of God, though it might have human mistakes.
“The cries of the hired servants have come to God and God has heard them, misapplication of riches is what poses danger, we need wisdom from God to function”, he added.
In his remarks, Governor Dickson said his re-election for second tenure in office was tough but he emerged victorious because God’s hand was upon him.
He said his government was making efforts within the limited resources available and would take steps to enhance the welfare of its workforce.
Dickson said that government had achieved so much in the first one year of his second term in the areas of infrastructure, education, health and agriculture, among others.
“Our dreams are so high that you can’t even use a ladder to see. In the midst of recession, we are building the best schools, roads, hospitals in the state”, Dickson said.
Meanwhile, the Bayelsa Government and its workforce have disagreed on the exact outstanding salary arrears owed civil servants in the state.
Workers claimed that they were being owed six months salary backlog, while government officials put the arrears at three months.
The Bayelsa House of Assembly on Tuesday, in a closed-door session, approved a N3 billion loan request from the executive arm to purchase cars for legislators and security agencies.
The development attracted criticisms from civil servants in the state, who said that seeking a loan to purchase the cars at a time the state government owed workers six months salary arrears was insensitive.
Reacting to the development, Mr Daniel Iworiso-Markson, the Chief Press Secretary to Gov. Seriake Dickson denied in a statement that the government was owing workers for six months.
According to him, the government is owing workers only three months salaries.
The statement restated the governor’s commitment to running a transparent system, where the welfare of workers and the citizenry remains a priority.
“It is therefore not true that government is owing six months salary of workers, as alleged in some of the media reports.
“Rather, government is making conscious efforts to clear all outstanding salaries and has even gone ahead to pay in full, the salary for the month of January,” Iworiso-Markson said.
However, labour leaders and civil servants maintained that the government was yet to clear a backlog of the six months salary arrears being owed the state workers.
Chairman of Bayelsa chapter of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr Tari Dounana and his Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) counterpart, John Ndiomu, insisted that the government is owing the workers six months salary.
Dounana said, “The facts are there and we cannot be lying on issues like this, I can be quoted on this.
“Workers are having salary arrears of six months and we met with government on this issue only last week.
“It is likely that those claiming that we are not being owed do not have the details, we met with the government finance team and they set up a committee to work out the payment plan,” Dounana said.
A civil servant, Ebi Douye provided further details on the salary situation in Bayelsa.
“The arrears is six months, we are keeping records, January 2015 salary was paid full in April 2015. February and March 2015 salaries were not paid.
“From April to September, half salaries were paid. December salary has not been paid.
“The three full salaries not yet paid, plus half of the six months makes it six months of unpaid salaries,” Douye said.
Arodiegwu Eziukwu
