By Mumini AbdulKareem
For workers of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and their counterparts in the local governments, the endless wait to receive their salary backlog will soon be over as the Senate President and national leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki has promised to offset the arrears.
The cheering news was announced by Saraki during the PDP monthly stakeholders’ meeting at Ile Arugbo, GRA, Ilorin, on Saturday.
According to Saraki, the payment of the money to workers in the affected local government will commence as early as this week with three selected councils each from the three senatorial districts of Kwara Central, South and North.
The gesture would be a huge relief to the workers who have endured months of arrears because of the dwindling allocation from the Federal Government.
Efforts to clear the backlog have been on by the state government and several meetings held with National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and SUBEB officials.
Although Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed had promised to commence payment of the money before now, it was gathered that the FG had allegedly politicised the issue of the last tranche of the Paris Club refund from which the arrears were expected to be defrayed.
Governor Ahmed who was present at the meeting with Saraki blamed the inability of his administration to clear the backlog on the drop in federal allocation to the state and the refusal of the FG to release the last tranche of the Paris Club refund to the state.
Ahmed announced that plans were in top gear to clear the salary arrears in order to make the affected workers and their family more comfortable.
Saraki’s announcement was greeted with thunderous ovation by PDP supporters who had earlier stressed the need for the concerned authorities to find means of settling salary arrears of certain category of workers in the state.
