AMOSUN IS OWING US N4.3BILLION BACKLOG OF SALARIES, TAI SOLARIN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION WORKERS CRY TO VICE PRESIDENT
The workers in the letter told the Vice-President that the non-payment of staff salaries and arrears for several months has taken its toll on staff of the College, adding that, this include the untimely death of some of them
‘Some of these staff died because of little medical expenses that could not be paid at hospital. Several other staff had been subjected to the nursing of terminal ailments occasioned by the psychological effect of non-payment of salary’.
‘It is more devastating to note that we have husband and wife working together in the College and are being subjected to this high level of dehumanization. Many families had been put in disarray over non-payment of salary as they cannot meet up with their social and financial obligations to their family’, the letter stated.
The 474 staff further disclosed that, many of them had been ejected by their landlords over their inability to pay house rent while staff with children in secondary schools and University had withdrawn their children due to dearth of fund.
Penpushing further reports that, the worried staffers said, emotional trauma/distress remained another major factors they were facing, which they noted has been so dehumanized beyond description, adding that for seven years running, there is no promotion for staff and this has implication on staff morale.
‘Your Excellency sir, the disposition of the state government to these outstanding salaries and arrears has been lukewarm in nature as the government kept on saying at every opportunity that the staff was not owed any salary. The only mouth piece through which the staff would have made its case known to the outside world (Staff Unions) has been proscribed by the State Government using executive fiat’.
They also called on need for urgent action from Osinbajo, pointing out that Tai Solarin College of Education is a teacher training institution which provide social service to the populace and as such, cannot unilaterally charge higher fees like other tertiary institutions.
‘College of Education is the last option for many students aspiring for higher education in Nigeria and this accounted for the dwindling enrolment in nearly all Colleges of Education in Nigeria (except those running degree programmes in affiliation to a University).
‘Our College is no exception and this has drastically reduced the College internally generated revenue (IGR). Therefore, the position of the State government that the College should look inward (IGR) to pay staff salary cannot hold. In addition, the government in self-denial continued to place staff salaries under ‘subvention’ which in itself is an aberration’, the letter reads.
‘We are aware of your antecedent as an academic, one time Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State, an illustrious son of Ogun State, a respected and preferred man of God and currently the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and we are confident that you will not allow our sweat to go down the drain’.
The workers called on Osinbajo to compassionately intervene in their case by appealing to Amosun to restore our salary to 100% with effect from October, 2018; pay all outstanding salary and arrears (especially from the last tranche of the bail-out fund since the College never benefited from the payment of previous tranches); and constitute and inaugurate a Governing Council for the College since none has been put in place from the point of relocation of the College to Omu-Ijebu in October, 2008.
