The Kogi State Chapter Chairman of Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Comrade Gabriel Amari has alleged that Directors of Local Government (DLGs) in the state are coercing the union to accept a ridiculous percentage of their salaries for the month April. Amari said Unions in the local government system in Kogi state – NULGE, NUT and NUP – are under pressure from DLGs in the 21 LGAs to accept a dummy that the State Government had directed a reduction in the already ridiculous 50% salary paid to LG workers in the State.
He described the attempt to use the Governor’s name to cause more hardship on local government workers as wicked and inhuman. Amari who expressed reservation at the alleged directives, said it was not only a manipulation of the DLGs to further impoverish Local Government workers in the state, but it is also an unfortunate way of dragging the name of the state government in the mud adding that such a plan is totally unacceptable to LG workers in the state.
The Union leader argued that there was no reduction in the monthly allocation of the state that could warrant any percentage salary payments stressing that the DLG’s should stop hiding under the guise of COVID-19 to deny workers in the local government their legitimate right amidst the hardship in the country. “If the state government is not directing the Accountant General to pay percentage salary payment to state workers, why should DLGs think of this unpopular and inhuman move against the overstretched and impoverished LG workers,” he querried.
Comrade Amari who particularly lamented the plight of LG workers as exemplified by the functions and daily activities of health workers noted with concern that despite their vulnerability and dangers in line of duties especially in the current global health challenges occasioned by the COVID 19 pandemic, there are no PPEs, or incentives to encourage them.
The Union leader, who saluted the commitments, the patience and resilience of Local Government workers especially their health counterparts in the state, called on the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and the 21 DLGs in the state to stop dragging the name of the Kogi State Government in the mud by putting to rest with immediate effect any alleged plan to pay percentage salary to Local Government workers in the state.
