By Uduak Umo
For some months, one nagging challenge for the administration
of Governor Udom Emmanuel has been with the organized labour. There have been
tensions between both parties with state government policies and actions drawing
reactions from the labour as the later struggles to acclimatize under the
unusual. In the milieu that has formed, the public has been led to believe an
unhealthy mix of facts and untruths. This mix has now gone through filtration
and the facts have crystallized out.
The Majority of Akwa Ibom based labour supply has been
Public Servants since state creation, explaining the common impression of a
Civil Service State. Although there has been a robust population of petty
self-employed labour, the fresh college leaver would give you his definition of
employment: get a permanent job - in the civil service.
The Civil Service is like a religion in Akwa Ibom. Only
Christianity commands more devotion.
When fiscal policies are made in high places, it is Civil
servants who bring home the effects of the resultant economic changes. Other than
being a Governor, it seems the next safest job in Akwa Ibom is being a ‘Worker’;
being a civil servant. There has even been reports of politicians who retained
their employment status as ‘Workers’ long after they had won an election; not
mentioning those who failed and went back to ‘Work’.
When Civil Servants
Are Provoked
It is even believed that if Akwa Ibom workers perceive you
to be cheating on them, as a senior government official, they would attend the
next event you are invited to en masse – especially if the venue is Ibom Hall,
what could be regarded as a theatre of state events – and they would boo you
deafeningly. Two people they did this to lost their lives mysteriously shortly
afterwards. In fact, Mr. Umana Umana, a past governorship aspirant whom the
Workers had accused of severely short-changing them as SSG, has reportedly
refused to attend any event at Ibom Hall since he fell out with them till date,
unwilling to dare the risk of facing these unarmed mercenaries of ‘divine’ judgment.
Such is the power of Civil Service in Akwa Ibom, and that
tells you what to expect if civil servants challenge the government. Other
Nigerians may believe this to be nothing different from their states, but I dare
say that, in Akwa Ibom, it goes a little deeper.
A key stakeholder for any government, there has been no administration,
since the old Cross River State that has not recorded an experience with the civil
servants. However, other than the Umana situation, the Akpabio administration did
enjoy a flowery relationship with the Workers; climaxing each year with what
they fondly called ‘Akpabio-mber’ - a 13th month salary bonus they
collected to them every December. Although the administration of Mr. Udom
Emmanuel famously hit the ground running with Economy-focused governance, his
government has already tasted a bit of tension with the Workers.
How The Udom Administration
Has Fared
Firstly, the Governor has brought back a long quiescent
culture of paying taxes. He has insisted that Akwa Ibom must go back to the
mores of accountability and strict legal obligation of citizens to the State –
a constitutional demand that had been suspended as we basked in what seemed
like ever increasing oil based wealth and federal allocation. This was not
familiar to us, and the first to react were our civil servants.
A simple tax scheme had been approved for implementation
nationwide some years back, and the administration of Governor Udom had come to
implement it having taken time to discuss with and sensitize the affected Akwa
Ibom people of the changes to expect. He approved of a 50% rebate on the tax
increase that followed; but the Workers cried out with some of them even misunderstanding
figures and insinuating that state government was taking 50% off their salaries
as tax. Not until the Governor met with the state Labour Union, and several
messages went out over the media to correct the ensuing insinuations and
propaganda, was the tension mitigated. And then as some of the rumour mongers
received their remuneration, the situation died a natural death.
On this, the Workers had exhibited insensitivity and lack of
discretion to a great extent. One, taxation is as old a concept as
civilization, from ancient times. Any educated person knows taxation to be a
responsibility of every citizen in every nation, unless where the constitution exempts.
Workers are supposed to be a body of non-partisan professionals who deliver
essential services to the public. They outlast political administrations and
should be the first to understand the most straightforward policies of
government. Secondly, the said tax structure is being implemented on all
government paid personnel including political
appointees. For the politicians, there is no rebate – they pay the complete levy,
deducted at source. It must be that the understanding NLC showed following the meeting with the governor resulted from
his presenting these facts before them.
But then as months rolled by, some workers who had most
recently been recruited began to cry out that they were not receiving their
pay. By November 2015, most of them had worked for a year without pay. And you
can imagine the outcry. Where anger over unpaid salaries did not get, the administration’s
renewed taxation policy did, with issues like non-payment of arrears, debts owed
to local government staff etc. bringing up the rear. Political hyenas have
cashed in on the situation, battering it further with rounds after rounds of
propaganda, the most up to date being rumours of a labour strike threat.
Negotiation has always worked wonders where tension
threatens and unfortunately for people who were getting excited at the prospect
of an NLC strike, the administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel does believe in
the age old key of dialogue. As the rumoured strike loomed around the end of February,
labour leaders and government officials sat down again to dialogue. The Head of
Service, Dr. Mrs. Ekereobong Akpan chaired the meeting that also had in attendance
the Commissioner for Education, Mr Aniekan Akpan; Special Adviser to the
Governor on Labour, Productivity and Manpower Planning, Honourable Ekpenyong
Enyinna and NLC executives.
According to an attendee, this time, the unionists unfurled
a list of all issues affecting the civil servants, which included promotion of
teachers without arrears, non-payment of outstanding gratuities to retirees,
arrears of salaries to local government employees, and other demands. They
practically brought the length and breadth of Workers’ problems to the table –
to which the Government delegation had simple, enlightening and heartwarming
responses. At the end of the meeting, the NLC vice chairman exclaimed in
satisfaction; “probably if we were this
informed, some of these issues wouldn’t have come up at all”. Apparently,
the facts and the accurate state of things have become clear to the
representatives of workers. These facts are what Honourable Enyinna passed
across as he gave an unhurried explanation to select members of the online media
in his office on Thursday 3rd March.
Now, yes, some workers had enjoyed promotion without
receiving the commensurate wage increase because, he said, they were due for
promotion in a time when the state and entire nation are struggling with
financial crises;
“Planning 4 to 6 years ago was based on what we used to
receive. But now, we’re not even receiving up to a quarter of that. We used to
receive this amount, and we don’t have it for now to pay arrears; must that
stop you from being promoted? There is what is called notional promotion; where
you are promoted but not with the corresponding arrears. But, you see, the government can even sit down when
things improve, and say, workers take this – what you never expected”.
Akwa Ibom Civil
Servants, Paid As At When Due
‘People who still claim on social media that Civil Servants
in Akwa Ibom are not being paid are either outdated or mischievous’; this would
be the conclusion of anyone who listens to a replay of Mr. Enyinna’s assertion
as he spoke in this interview.
No civil servant in Akwa Ibom can rise up and say, ‘look, I
have not been paid’”. He said, adding that;
“Some states are
owing up to 6, 7, 8 months. In some, they are laying off workers. But in Akwa
Ibom State, are we owing? No we’re not. We’re paying civil servants as at when due.”
It will be recalled, as earlier mentioned above, that when
the governor decided to implement the new tax scheme (which had been in
implementation by the federal government and in other states), he also offered
to ease the pressure that the change would bring by half. The SA, who did not
fail to make reference to this humane gesture, stated;
“This is the same governor that gave a rebate of 50% on
taxes for workers. Is it constitutional? No. It only takes conscience to say,
let me do this so that workers will be happy.
Any person that has good conscience will definitely do things that will
boost the morale of the workers. There are workers that will tell you, ‘look, I
am happy, God will bless you’”.
Honourable Enyinna also took time to give details about the
unpopular saga of unpaid salaries to those recruited since 2014. From earlier
explanations by the Governor and other government officers, it could be understood
that the state government had to withhold these salaries so that the right
money does not get into the wrong hands. Government has been taking the time to
get the right things done. Yet, the SA has given even more insight into the
situation;
“I was the secretary of the committee of verification to
look at some of the new recruits that came in. A whole of things were discovered.
There was this employment racketeering.
People had come up with petitions that they had paid ‘X’ amount for employment
letters to be issued them. The SSS are aware of this; people were called for
questioning – ‘where did you get this...?’
Civil servants should thank His Excellency; he is a man with
compassion. There are some civil servants that would have been behind bars. But
His Excellency took it mild, choosing to correct the anomalies and plug the
loopholes. And these things take a process; it can’t be a snap of the fingers.
Those that have been cleared among the new recruits have
been paid their salaries. For those that have not been paid, there is another
committee that is verifying the authenticity of their credentials. The
committees are working; they’ve reached out to the University of Uyo, the
University of Nigeria and other universities.”
Where Is Akwa Ibom
Heading?
There have been a lot of assurances and reassurances on the
near future of Akwa Ibom. There might be trying times in the nation right now,
but fortunately for our people, the right man is at the helm of affairs in Akwa
Ibom. By now, Nigerians, notwithstanding their
political and ethnic persuasions, know that it takes a trustworthy leader to
attract foreign fiscal participation into the polity. While the federal
Government is finding it herculean achieving this, Akwa Ibom State has been
buzzing with foreign investors since Udom became Governor. It is a strong ray
of hope and Mr. Enyinna once again puts it better here;
“Do you think just anybody can wake up and tell a person ‘bring
your money and come and invest here’? You choose the bank that you put your money.
The people that are coming into this state to invest are here because of Udom
Emmanuel.
Since Before the Supreme Court judgment, we had about 17
investors. They are all here because they have confidence in him. If we know
what the governor is trying to do, we will sit back and watch him in admiration.”
From the relationship between the State Government and the
Labour in Akwa Ibom, one thing is safe to expect from the administration of Udom
Emmanuel, and that is transparency. The various component stakeholders of the Government
can testify to this. There is ease of access to Government offices enjoyed by
the media, independent researchers and PR specialists in Akwa Ibom as further proof
of this. While this has helped many see the broad disparity between claims by
practitioners of yellow journalism and the accurate state of things, for those
of us who early enough could separate the credible from the mischievous in the
media ecosystem – we have no problem unmasking falsehood – such transparency
helps us see the future of Akwa Ibom as told by the Udom Emmanuel leadership; a
future of Akwa Ibom as no longer predominated by Civil Service employment, but
a huge geographical nucleus of industries.
Uduak Umo is a Lagos/Uyo based PR Strategist & Public Affairs analyst,
