2019: How unpaid salaries will decide govs’ fate

Gladiators in the country’s political landscape are battle ready for next year’s general elections.
But one of the key factors that will shape the outcome of the polls is the issue of unpaid salaries by some governors.
Will this decide their fate at the polls? TOPE SUNDAY seeks answers in this piece.
In the next 189 days, Nigeria would witness another round of elections, and by that time, it would be a general election.
Expectedly, all the elective positions starting from the office of the president down to the seats of the state lawmakers would be contested.
Aside the election of the president, which is paramount to all the political parties, governorship election will not be also taken with kid gloves.
Seriousness and importance are attached to it; and also, the success and otherwise of the government at the centre is measured by the performance of its governors.
In 2019, governorship elections in Bayelsa, Ondo, Edo, Ekiti and Osun states would be exempted followingthe variation in the dates their governors came on board.
The erring states As at March, this year, 35 out of the 36 states of the federation were reportedly owed workers their salaries.
This allegation was made by the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr. Bobboi Kaigama. Though, Blueprint Weekend could not verify his claims, feelers have it that most states are caught up in this mess. In states like Osun, Ekiti, Kwara, Benue, and Kogi, workers or pensioners are either being owed salaries, pension arrears or being paid certain percentages of out their monthly salaries.
The TUC President, who dropped the bombshell while attending the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union in Lagos in March, identified corruption as the reason for the development, alleging that some governors refused to pay workers’ salaries despite the billions of Paris Club refunds they received from the Buhari-led federal government.
According to Kaigama, Lagos is the only state that is “healthy” and up-todate in the payment of salaries and pensions, and called for the resignation of any governor who finds payment of salaries as a rocket science.
Apparently angered over the plight of the Nigerian workers, he said: “We want to say without fear of contradiction that the only healthy state in this country that has no arrears of salaries and other wages or unpaid benefits is Lagos state.
All the other states have one issue or the other in terms of salaries, wages or benefits of their workers that have not been paid.
There is no exception.
“You will find out that, if it is not one month’s salary that is not paid, it would be 13 months of gratuities or pensions that have notbeen paid.
Or that contributory pension deductions are not being remitted or that there are certain promotion arrears and death benefits that have not been paid.
So, I am telling you, taking this issue holistically, we can only say Lagos state is the only healthy state in this country.” Continuing, he said: “We keep saying that, if state governors cannot meet their obligations to their workers, they should just resign andleave the stage.
We have continued to argue that, apart from the first generation states that were created by the military, there is no state that was created thereafter that did not have its submission that the state had the capacity to pay the wages of the workers in the stat and other things.” Echoes from Ekiti The much-anticipated July 14 Ekiti state governorship election has been won and lost, and without prejudice and any iota of sentiment, the election is now a subject of controversy and litigation as the leading gladiators are engaged in accusations and counter-accusations of financial inducements.
According to the election results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Dr John Kayode Fayemi, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled197, 459 votes to defeat his closest rival, Prof. Kolapo Olusola of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 178, 459 votes.
The preliminary reports on the election and the public outcry that later accompanied it have opened another chapter in country’s political history.
Though, the issue of vote-buying is not new, the Ekiti saga has brought its effect to the centre stage.
In one of the reports, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), submitted that it was characterised by ‘vote-trading,’ the act that could not be tamed completely till the exercise lasted.
“The election witnessed an unprecedented level of vote-trading, a trend which is fast becoming a norm in Nigeria’s elections.
While we earlier noted attempts by security operatives to curb vote buying and selling, this phenomenon still prevailed with observers reporting the dolling out of cash to voters.
“For example, one party agent was caught on video by PTCIJ‘s and CDD’s observer sharing N5, 000 to voters at PU012, Igbemo Ward of IrepodunIfelodun LGA.
Another party agent in Ward C, Olanrewaju, PU 6, was photographed by one of our observers giving money to voters who already cast their vote”, the report alleged.
Also, Barrister Easter Uzoma, the Alternate Chairperson, Nigerian Civil Societies Situation Room, who was one of the observers during the poll, told Blueprint Weekend that vote-buying “occurred flagrantly with unbridled delinquency during the election.” “Vote-buying did not only occur in Ekiti state, but it occurred flagrantly with unbridled delinquency.
Vote buying was celebrated and there was an accountability aspect of voting buying,” she said.
According to her, a vote was allegedly bought between N3, 000 and N10, 000 respectively.
This development, this paper gathered was occasioned by the non-payment of the workers’ salaries in the state.
As at June this year, the outgoing Governor of the state, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, owed the state’s workers six month salaries, and this, pundits said, was his candidate’s albatross at the poll.
Unpaid salaries, encourages vote buying The ugly trend of vote buying, according to the pundits, was berthed by the non-payment of workers’ salaries.
And this, according to the National President, Nigeria Workers Group, (TNWG), Comrade Kayode Ehindero, the governors employed the tactic to impoverish workers in their various states in order to do their whims and fancies.
“It is uncalled and unheard of that our governors are now owing salaries. This act is done deliberately to impoverish the workers in order to cow them to do their biddings. It is after they have failed to pay salaries that they now introduced voting buying.
“So, they know that hungry workers would have no option than to cave in to their antics. This trend and development are not good.
The Nigerian workforce should be treated with dignity’’, Ehindero said.
The new trend may play a major role in the next year’s election if necessary measures are not applied.
Like Barrister Uzoma postulates, vote buying would shape the out coming of the 2019 elections going by the experiences from Edo, Ondo and Ekiti elections.
But she was quick to add that massive advocacy is on to enlighten the electorate on the danger of selling their votes.
The female activist said: “In Ekiti, what we saw was ‘operation see and buy’. In Edo, it was followed who knows road and make a pot of soup. I pray and hope that in Osun and other places, it will not evolve. Yes, one of the things that will shape the 2019 election is money.
“But there are other factors too.
For instance, IDPs camps have increased and now, we have more displaced persons than what we had in 2015.
But based on our rigour campaign and enlightenment, we foresee that this menace of vote buying will be at its lowest ebbs in 2019.
“As we are encouraging the electorate to vote, if they should come out in their numbers, they will overwhelm those who are trying to buy their votes.
If they are many, it will be practically impossible for anybody to pay for such huge amount of money to buy their votes’’.
Barrister Uzoma, who is also the National Coordinator, Proactive Gender Initiatives, also admitted that votebuying is currently a menace in Nigeria because there is hunger in the land.
The election decider As the 2019 elections gather momentum, Blueprint Weekend reliably gathered from a top ranked member of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) that the union would lay emphasis on salary payment, adding that any state governor who defaults in his salary obligation to the workers may be ‘consumed’.
The source, however, hinted that the union is yet to take a firm position on the fate of some of the governors that owe salaries.
This, the source alleged, is as a result of the political infiltration into the union.
However, efforts to obtain official reactions from the organised labour proved futile, while the President of the Trade Union Congress, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, neither answered all the calls put through to his line, nor replied the text message sent to him; the President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said he was about to board plane when contacted on Friday and requested our Reporter to contact him on Monday.
But a Political Analyst, Mr. Oluwafemi Fayomi, who told this paper that nonpayment of salary is one of the key factors that will determine the outcome of the governorship elections in the country, argued that any governor owing salary may not find it trouble-free at the poll.
Fayomi said: “As the 2019 general elections approach, the Nigeria political system will soon be dominated with intense and high level of political activities following the happenings in the politics in recent times. The elections will be held in all the states of the federation with the exception of gubernatorial elections in Bayelsa,Ondo, Edo, Ekiti and Osun states.
“It is worrisome to note that almost all the states of the federation owe workers’ salaries ranging from a month to fifteen months.
Civil servants both in the states and local government areas as well as pensioners are being owed salaries.
In understanding how the outcome of an elections will be, scholars have postulated theories in determining the manner in which electorates tend to vote during an election which is known as voting behavior.
Scholars have identified Personality, Class, Cue, and Issue, to name a few as possible influencing factors in any voting process.
“The forthcoming general election is going to be largely influenced by the aforementioned factor, however, the theory that may best predict the voting pattern of the electorates in the election will be issue- based voting pattern.
It is not an overstatement that when the civil servants are paid as at when due, its multiplier effects on the economy is invaluable as it stimulates economic activities to a very great extent. “The proponent of the issue- based voting behavior holds that an electorate tends to vote for candidate that will best advance his/her interest.
The workers are major bloc of electorates that will vote in the forthcoming general elections.
In most states where workers are owe several month salaries; it will be extremely difficult for the governing parties in those states to win.
“It is, however, instructive to note that non- payment of salary may not be the only determining factor in the outcomes of the elections, but no doubt, it will have a significant factor in the voting behaviour of the electorates in the 2019 general elections.” CSOs mobilise against erring govs Against the norms in Nigeria where politicians reportedly induce voters financially to corner their votes, Civil Societies Organisations (CSOs) said they are ready to halt the trend in 2019, saying Nigerian workers and electorates are being mobilized and sensitized against vote buying.
Barrister Uzoma, who is of the Nigerian Civil Societies Situation Room, asked workers to restrict any attempt to cave in for vote buying, and urged the workers not to collect money in replacement for their votes from any government officer that is owing them money, warning that such money is ‘blood money’.
“I will tell the electorate this; the politician that did not pay you salary for six, seven or eight month salaries and come penultimate day to the election to offer you money, I will ask you not to collect such money.
It is blood money.
In fact, that money is contemptuous of your existence as a human being. “Dear electorate, obtain your PVCs and make a choice of what you want. And for the politicians, up your games and evolve ideological beliefs. Let people believe in you because of what you believe in.
Do not prostitute your politics’’, the Rights Activist cautioned.
Collaborating Barrister Uzoma’s claims, the National President of the Nigeria Workers Group (TNWG), a nongovernmental organization fighting for the workers’ rights in Nigeria, Comrade Kayode Ehindero, said his group is working assiduously to mobilize workers against state governors that owe salaries.
Ehindero, who is also the Executive Director/ Lead Strategist of the Nigerians Workforce Strategy and Enlightenment Centre (NIWOSEC), disclosed that Nigerian worker are being mobilised to shun financial inducement during next year’s elections, adding any defaulting governor in salary payment will be denied votes.
“As the President of the Nigeria Workers Group, our members are being mobilised and sensitised on the dangers of selling their votes and this sensitisation is on-going and it is very massive. By the special grace of God, none of our members would fall victim of vote buying because it is very despicable.
“As we move to the 2019, the governors that are owe salaries should expect a replica of what happened in Ekiti state, where our members revolted and voted in protest because the state government owes them salaries.
Now, any governor that owes us salaries will be affected by his failure to fulfill his salary payment obligation,” he said.