…As post-subsidy hardship bites harder
• Workers adopt austerity, survival strategies
By Fred Ezeh, Adanna Nnamani, Charity Nwakaudu (Abuja), Okey Sampson (Umuahia), Jude Dangwam (Jos), Emmanuel Adeyemi (Lokoja), Geoffrey Anyanwu (Enugu), Scholastica Onyeka (Makurdi), Layi Olanrewaju (Ilorin), Noah Ebije (Kaduna) and Tony John (Port Harcourt)
There is lamentation among civil servants across the country as the hardship unleashed by the removal of fuel subsidy deepens the pains of workers, who were already agonising over their inability to meet essential needs.
This is as governors in several states had left office with two or three tranches of their humongous annual retirement benefits paid in one lump sum while they also left several months of unpaid salaries and pension benefits of retired civil servants.
While the hapless civil servants were still weeping over the salaries the departing governor heartlessly did not pay them in addition to the mind-blowing loans they left for their successors to content with, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy during his inauguration on May 29.
Since that pronouncement, the prices of every item in the country, from sachet water to processed goods and even vegetables cultivated in open spaces in the country, have shot up astronomically.
Reports from across the country, paint a gloomy picture of how civil servants are struggling to survive.
ABUJA
At the Federal Ministry of Education, fewer persons turn up for work on daily basis since the effect of the fuel subsidy removal began to bite harder.
It was, however, gathered that there was a verbal agreement among workers, perhaps, with the approval of their supervisors, to skip some days due to the sudden hike in the cost of transportation and other services.
A staff of one of the ministries who pleaded anonymity confirmed to Sunday Sun that some departments have worked out “clean” arrangements among the workers on which days to show up in the office.
The staff said: “There was no memo from the Office of Head of Service of the Federation to the effect that workers should skip days. However, there was such agreement among the staff within their departments. It was being done in a particular manner and neatly because there was no official circular to support the arrangement.
“These arrangements within departments were made in such a way that the official work would not suffer. So far, the arrangement has been working well, and nobody can feel the low turnout of staff.
“My brother, it’s not easy for us at all. Cost of transportation, cost living and other services have gone beyond our reach, and nothing was added to our salary to cushion the effect, neither were palliatives provided for us.”
The same arrangements seem to have also been adopted in some agencies under the Federal Ministry of Education. Inquiries indicated that there was a drop in number of members of staff that come to work despite the fact that there was no official circular to back up the activities of the workers.
Commenting on measures by the Federal Government to cushion the hardship affecting its workers as result of steep rise in transport fares and cost of living, Director Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr Olamide Oshundun, said: “You know that President Tinubu has set up a committee, which has been meeting with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). My Permanent Secretary has been attending the meeting. I don’t have full information on what has been discussed, but I know that the NLC has made some demands.
“However, I don’t think we are doing anything at the Ministry level because you cannot plan anything without a budget and if you see the kind of budget released for 2023 it is like less than 20 per cent of what we had in 2022. So, there is no way any ministry can operate successfully with the budget of 2023. In fact, our own thinking is that the new administration of President Tinubu would revisit that budget. No ministry can function well with the kind of budget they left.
“So, I can tell you authoritatively that I don’t think the ministry is planning anything because what the ministry receives now is not even enough to meet the day-to-day activities of the ministry. So, for me, they cannot start thinking of cushioning effects. All of us are still coming to work every day. Although I can say the ministry is thinking along the line of buying more staff buses and other staff welfare. Like before they left, the consequential allowance is what civil servants have been able to get, but it is not enough and government itself is thinking of salary increase. Apart from buses, there is nothing the ministry can do on its own.”
Head of Corporate Affairs at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mrs Hadiza Umar, on her part told Sunday Sun: “For now we encourage staff to work online from their homes which we have been doing since the COVID-19. So, for most of our activities, you can work online. I would still need to find out if there are other incentives asides working from home.”
Reuben Emeh, a civil servant who resides in Byazhin across one of the villages in Kubwa, said that he goes to work only on Wednesdays, based on an understanding reached with his colleagues.
“I used to spend N1,200 to and fro, but with the way things are now and I spend close to N3,000 to and fro. So, we had a meeting in the department and came up with a roster, which permits us to appear in the office once in a week. We all can only report to the office at once only when there is emergency. My salary is not up to N100,000. What will remain if I pay N3,000 for only transport daily? This is really frustrating. The government should try and look into it, or we will continue pretending why the economy is draining,” he said.
Another civil servant, Joy Emeka, said that the situation has turned her into a commercial taxi driver: “It has not been easy for me to report to work daily due to the increase in fuel price. I used not to carry passengers with my vehicle while going to work, but now I have to take passengers along, to enable me to fuel my tank. If I want to use my salary that means nothing will be left for me by the month end.”
Ameh Ede also confessed that the situation has turned him into a commercial taxi driver though he doesn’t go to work daily based on an agreement reached with other colleagues.
“In my office we agreed to be coming to work twice in a week. I carry passengers any time I’m going to work and on the free days I also use my car fully for taxi service, to be able to meet up with family needs,” he said.
ABIA
Like most citizens across the country, civil servants and workers in general in Abia State are groaning under the weight of sharp increase in transport fares occasioned by the increase in the fuel pump price without any measures to ameliorate the biting effect.
Since the sharp increase in transport fares happened, the state government has not come out with any clear-cut policy or programme to cushion the effect of the increase in transport fares.
For instance, prior to the chaotic transport fares, it had been government policy that local government workers must come to work for a certain number of days before they receive their salary.
To concretize this, the immediate past Governor Okezie Ikpeazu administration introduced the biometric system of signing in every morning they come to work and sign out through the same process at the end of work. Each Local Government worker was expected to thump-print for a certain number of days in a month before qualifying to receive that month’s salary. Although, this was to check truancy, but most of the workers never found it funny, as they would still not be paid at the end of the month.
Many had thought that Governor Alex Otti would abolish the ‘factory system’, especially in this period of high cost of transportation, to reduce the number of days workers show up and thereby cushion the impact of the high cost of transportation.
With the biometric system still in place, workers find it extremely difficult to devise means of cutting down on high cost of transportation to get to work in the state.
On some routes in the state, the fares jumped by 100 per cent, but on other routes, fares went up by just 50 per cent. Short drops in some parts of Umuahia that used to be N50 before the increase in petrol price went up to N100 while in some other places the short drops cost N150. The same is applicable in Aba, the commercial hub of the state.
Though the government claims that it pays N40,000 minimum wage, but workers said what they receive monthly is a far cry from what the government actually pays.
Lamenting over the situation, a civil servant in Umuahia, who told Sunday Sun only her first name, Esther, claimed that the workers are paid less than the national minimum wage of N30,000 monthly.
To make matters worse, the present administration has barred workers from selling items in the offices. Proceeds from such sales would have helped the junior staff to cushion the high cost of transportation.
Another civil servant, Orji, who works in one of the local governments, said that it has been difficult for them to make ends meet as almost half of their salaries are spent on transportation.
“I desperately want the governor to do something to ameliorate the transportation hardship that state workers are going through, so that they can see something left of their salaries to take home to meet other needs,” Orji appealed.
PLATEAU
The Plateau State civil servants have been home for almost three months now following the industrial action embarked upon by the Labour union since May11, this year, when the past administration failed to meet their demands.
The state government under the current administration of Governor Caleb Mutfwang had announced the commencement of physical verification of all state workers and pensioners following series of engagement and understanding reached between the new administration and the labour leaders.
Some workers, who spoke to Sunday Sun at the Joseph Gomwalk State Secretariat while waiting patiently for the exercise, recounted how they got to the venue despite non-payment of salaries.
Mr Davou Stephen Daniel, a staff of the Ministry of Health, said that he had long expected the exercise because any serious government must know the actual number of its legal workers. However, he lamented over the wide hole the high cost of transportation has made in his pocket.
Painting a picture of his financial ordeal, Daniel said: “I live in Bukuru, Jos South Local Government Area. Commuting from there has not been easy with the increase in transport fare without a corresponding increase in remuneration. It is not only civil servants that are affected, rather, everybody is groaning because of the situation. The government can do something to alleviate the suffering of the masses.
“The fare from Bukuru to Secretariat Junction used to be N150, but today I paid N300. The man was even insisting that I pay N350. There is no definite transport fare now.”
Rotmwa Kassam, a staff of the Ministry of Information and Communication, who lives around Apata community of Jos North, revealed the solution she adopted to get to the venue of the physical verification exercise.
Her words: “This morning, from my junction to the Secretariat, the taxi drivers charged N300. I decided to trek down to Polo Roundabout. There, I learnt that the fare from that place to the Secretariat was still N300. So, I decided to walk a little farther to Standard junction. Luckily, I met my Director, who was heading for the office, and she gave me a ride; that was how I got here this morning.
“Before now from Polo roundabout to Secretariat Junction used to be N50 to N70. It later rose to N100. But now the fare is N250 and N300.”
Mr Sati Tanko, who resides in Jos, said that many people in his Tudun Wada area have resorted to trekking.
“I used to pay N100 from Tudun Wada to Hill Station Junction, where I work, but the fare is now N150. The increment of N50 might seem small, but it is hard on me,” he said.
The Head of Civil Service in Plateau State, Mrs Rauta Dakok, said that the state government is conscious of the hardship caused by the increase in price of petrol. For this reason, the government decentralized the physical verification exercise for the workers and made the zonal centres and local government secretariat as the venues for the pensioners.
She explained that the physical verification is a step towards the suspension of the lingering strike inherited by the Governor Mutfwang administration.
Dakok explained that Plateau was the first state in the country to implement the N30,000 national minimum wage policy in the country. And till date, that is what workers are earning.
Speaking on the impact of high cost of transportation, the NLC Chairman in Plateau State, Comrade Eugine Manji, shared his personal experience: “I took my car to the mechanic thinking I had leakage in my tank. He put it on dry ground to see if it was leaking, but after some time we discovered nothing was wrong with the tank. You see, I bought N10,000 fuel thinking that it would last long, but the volume went down. We have not been paid, and we move constantly in and outside the state more than other people.
“I swear to you, just moving within the town is pathetic! If you put fuel, you will wonder where the fuel has gone! We are worst affected, if it were something that one could stay in one place and move from home to office it could have been better.”
KOGI
Kogi State workers are equally burdened by the 100 per cent increase in transport fares. For example, in Lokoja, the state capital, a drop from Fen junction to the state secretariat, which used to be N200 by Okada (commercial motorcycle) has increased to N400 while the same trip by tricycle, which used to cost N150 is now about N300 or N350, depending on the tricycle rider.
Also, workers residing in Felele area, who used to pay N300 or N400 as transport fare to the state secretariat now have to pay N600 or 750 every day just to get to the office and pay the same amount to go home.
To save money, many workers trek long distances to work while many other workers skip some days. Those who have cars or motorcycles have difficulty fuelling them.
The plight of the workers has been compounded by the percentage payment of salaries to local government workers and primary school teachers by the state government with some receiving as low as 20 to 30 per cent of their salaries while some don’t even receive a dime of their salaries for several months. Even the national minimum wage was not fully implemented for local government workers and teachers.
As at today, the 21 local government secretariats which used to bustle with activities have been practically deserted as most workers no longer go to work while pupils in primary schools are at the receiving end as teachers too hardly report at their duty posts.
Sources close to the NLC chairman in the state, Comrade Gabriel Amari, said that the leaders of organized labour are planning to have an interface with the state government, to discuss palliatives to cushion the plight of workers in the state.
ENUGU
The situation in Enugu State is to say the least pathetic as neither the government nor the leadership of the organized labour in the state has made any known effort towards cushioning the effects of the steep rise in transport fare for the workers.
Leaders of the organized labour, according to the workers, have not said anything about their plight since the fuel subsidy removal.
Even when they had the opportunity recently at the security summit organized by Governor Peter Mbah, they dashed the hopes of the workers by not mentioning the matter.
It was at that meeting that the Archbishop, Enugu Ecclesiastical Province and Bishop of Enugu Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma, asked the governor to provide buses for the workers to ease the high transport fares.
The state government on its part has not said anything it will do to ameliorate the effects of the hike on the fuel price as it is preoccupied with other issues, especially the vexatious issue of sit-at-home.
However, some workers especially those coming to work from outside Enugu city, have adopted their own measures to cushion the impact of the sharp increase in transport fares by alternating the days they go to work.
Before the removal of fuel subsidy, a litre of fuel was sold at between N230 and N250 in the state and buses were charging N50 for a drop, but the same distance now costs N150. Those who come from communities outside the Enugu metropolis now spend over N2,000 to be in the office daily.
Meanwhile, the Enugu State government is paying the civil servants in the state the approved new minimum wage, which the immediate past governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, agreed to pay and was paying till he left office.
Speaking about the situation in Enugu, a senior civil servant who pleaded anonymity said: “I think we are in serious problem here in Enugu because both our leaders in the Labour union and government seem not to care about the welfare of the workers.
“You hear other state governments reducing days of coming to work, some brought out buses to convey workers to and fro, some pay extra money to workers as palliatives. But here, no one cares.”
BENUE
Long before the removal fuel subsidy, Benue State workers were contending with the issue of unpaid salaries running into months. While some are owed up to eight months, many say they were paid last in November 2022.
With the removal of subsidy, their condition, they said, worsened when the new governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, began the payment of May salaries from 25, 2023. They noted that while some have been paid, the majority of the civil servants, teachers and local government workers, are yet to receive their salaries, making life more difficult for them.
Speaking to our correspondent, the civil servants said that they have adopted several measures to cushion the impact of the sharp increase in transport fares.
While some no longer go to work every day, some others who pass through the same routes to their offices said that they put money together to buy fuel for the car of one of them, who would then pick them up at their various junctions.
Several others park their cars and would trek some distance before using commercial motorcycles, popularly known as Okada, to get to their offices.
A teacher who didn’t want to be named said: “I have to be in school from Monday to Friday. I can’t afford to miss school for the sake of the children. The salaries are not coming, transport fare has increased, it’s very frustrating.”
Another civil servant who also pleaded not to be named said, “don’t say I told you, but I have decided I would not be going to the office every day because I don’t have transport fare.”
Prior to subsidy withdrawal, in Makurdi, the state capital, a drop by bus was N100 from Wurukum roundabout to Terwase Agbadu junction, Wadata market, modern market and North Bank area, but now it costs as much as N150 and N200 depending on the mood of the conductor.
The Okada riders have also increased the fares they charge. On routes they previously charged N200 and N300, they now charge as much as N400 and N500 per drop.
The immediate past Governor Samuel Ortom administration started the implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage for workers on Grade Levels One to Six.
According to labour leaders, discussions were still ongoing to get the government to implement the minimum wage across all categories of civil servants before the tenure of Ortom ended.
The state Chairman of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Terungwa Igbe, urged Governor Alia to increase workers’ salaries to enable them cope with the current reality in the country.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Nigeria Union of Teachers, (NUT), in Benue State, Levi Aguma, told Sunday Sun that they are partnering with the government so that things will go well for the people.
“Whatever is going on now is not too good, but they are assuring us that things will be well, and we are waiting patiently for everything to be well,” Aguma said.
KWARA
The Kwara State government was quick to step in to ameliorate the suffering of its workers by reducing the length of the workweek to three days and the number of workers who should come to work, just as the civil servants adopted lifestyle adjustments and other strategies to cut costs, so as to survive.
Many of them have parked their cars and now use public transport to get to work. Workers that live in the axis use the option of carpools, whereby one person will drive his car and take others along. The next day, another person drives his own to the office. But the majority have resorted to trekking, saying it is part of physical exercise. The others park their vehicles at certain places, and then go to the office from a point. After the close of work, they pick up the vehicle and return home. Many others have resorted to using their abandoned motorcycles and bicycles to go to work.
Despite the Kwara State reduction of working days to civil or public servants and provision of free transport buses to designated routes especially to routes where higher institutions are situated the civil servants still complained of the meagre salary, they take home every month end.
Silifat Hamzat, a civil servant, noted that her family modified the daily routine. For instance, the family vehicle will only be out to use when the whole family has to go out together.
“As for me, if I want to go to work now, I trek a distance and then join public transport like taxi, minibus (Korope) to the office. Also, we have stopped the use of generator because we can’t avoid it. We prefer sleeping in darkness now.
Similarly, Usman Gidado said: “I have to think of how I will fuel the vehicle that will take my children to school and also fuel generator. No way. We did a meeting and arrived at options of either trekking to school or work and be using the generator at night. But we had to pick the one most essential to us. And my children picked going to school. So, generator was set aside.
“I usually drive the vehicle to their school, leave there and take public transport to work. When it is time to pick them, I take public transport to the school again, and we return home together. That has become our routine. My salary of N66,000 per month was not even enough before not to talk of now that prices of things have skyrocketed. I wonder how the government wants me to fulfill my family obligations.”
Previously, fares on routes cost 50k and N100 on some short distances. But now the same routes now cost N300 for minibuses and Okada while small cars charge N350. To make matter worst people have to wait for 30 minutes and one hour before getting a vehicle going to the person’s destination.
KADUNA
As is in other states, workers in Kaduna are passing through pains. Unlike Kwara and a few other places some sort of palliative was provided by the state governments, the Kaduna State government did not shorten the working week, except for Fridays on which the immediate past governor, Nasir el-Rufai, exempted the civil servants from going to the office.
It was not clear at the time of filing this report if the incumbent governor, Uba Sani, will declare additional free days for workers as part of measures to reduce the impact of the sharp increase in transport fares.
Investigation revealed that the lowest and highest monthly salaries paid to civil servants in the state range between N19,500 and N213,500.
Transport fares within the city, prior to fuel subsidy removal, used to be N100 per drop, but it is now N200 to N300 per drop.
This made residents to devise new ways to cope with the economic hardship. Some people have abandoned their private vehicles for public transport because of expensive cost of fuel, just as others drive their vehicles halfway to their destination, while trekking the rest of the way and then return to pick the vehicle later, to go back home.
Commenting on this, Godwin Nuhu, said: “The situation is not easy, and it is not funny because prices of everything you can think of have tripled. My vehicle, a Toyota Camry, now takes N42,000 to fill the tank as against N12,000. I have decided not to go out with the vehicle on daily basis again.”
Also, speaking, Asabe Danlami said: “Going to work every day is expensive nowadays because the whole monthly salary is not even enough for transportation. So, we are looking up to the state government to adopt measures that will cushion the current situation; otherwise, we are in deep trouble”.
RIVERS
In Rivers State, the government has not announced any form of palliative for the workers to cushion the effects of hardship they face. So, the civil servants are expectedly in lamentation.
Some of them who spoke with Sunday Sun under condition of anonymity, revealed that the claim of the erstwhile Governor Nyesom Wike administration of paying the N30,000 minimum wage was a fallacy.
They said that it was unfortunate that nobody could counter or challenge the immediate past government’s claim because of the mercurial person at the helm of affairs.
A Grade Level 15 officer, who did not want to disclose her identity for fear of victimisation said that people outside Rivers State find it difficult to believe that government workers in the oil-rich state are very poor.
Her words: “For now, there is nothing like any palliative to cushion the effects of high transportation. Government made promise of providing mass transit buses that would help to carry people including civil servants. But, nothing has happened in that regard. Nothing at all.
“Even as a civil servant, promotion benefit has actually been paid. But what we (civil servants) saw as promotion benefit is nothing to write home about compared to some other neighbouring states in the geopolitical zone.
“With all sincerity, this new government of Governor Siminalayi Fubara has promoted and paid civil servants. But the token from all calculation is nothing to write home about. What was paid was far below the expectation of the workers.
“On the minimum wage, the government has claimed that it has been paying the N30,000 minimum wage, but as we speak, one could sincerely say what government is paying is N18,000.
“Rivers State salary is nothing to compare to what some other states like Lagos, are paying their civil servants.
“The problem of minimum wage in Rivers State was that the person in power at the time was the person talking and answering. Nobody had the temerity to approach him on that matter.
“What was the crime of the immediate past chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress in Rivers with the state government? She only asked that government should pay the workers a living salary.”
According to another senior worker, a Level 14 officer, over 80 per cent of Rivers civil servants are surviving on serviceable loans.
He said: “Rivers civil servants are struggling to see if they can meet up. This is a fact. Rivers State civil servants are the highest loan patronizers in the country. There is no civil servant in Rivers State that does not have one or two, even up to three loans he or she is servicing.”
