Following pressure and directives from Presidency that all salary arrears, gratuities and pension by State Governments should be cleared by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Kwara State Government has moved to clear salary arrears of SUBEB Teachers and Local Government workers.
Recall that the Accountant-General of the Federation furnished the public with details of increased allocation for the month of December, 2023 and January 2024 that show allocations significantly increased, almost by 100 percent.
A pro-democracy group, Kwara Sustainable Development Advocacy Forum (KWASDAF) by Musa Idris Buko, (Coordinator, KWASDAF) while commending Kwara State Government for intending to clear the arrears has faulted the demand for National Identity Number (NIN) by the State Government as pre-condition to clear the owed arrears.
According to the Group, a data base exists and the sudden demand for submission of NIN as pre-condition is a move to create sudden millionaires as experienced during the alleged payment of 45% by Kwara State Government, most received below the publicised percentage as a result of the sordid deals through the payment agents called consultants. Anyone is free to interview the workers if they all receive exactly the 45% Consultants claimed to had paid.
Lamenting the pre-condition, KWASDAF stated that some beneficiaries of these owed arrears are now retired, some have died, while others are still in service, and this makes it totally unnecessary to subject workers, who have served the State to such inhumane torture, when database already exists. What happened to the data that was used to pay the alleged 45% earlier paid, why is there a new pre-condition? The Group queried. This move is suspicious and many workers suspect that there are ulterior motives.
Consequently, the Group charged the Governor to pay the workers and retirees what is due to them, as it is accrued payment for services that were rendered. Thus, setting pre-condition for payment may be seen as a mere attempt to defraud those who have committedly served the State.
