ACCORDING TO JOEL ODAUDU MINISTER, GOVERNOR YAHAYA BELLO IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK
Let me begin by emphasizing the fact that, I do not belong to the "hailing hailers" nor the "wailing wailers". However, I tried to be objective and critical in my assessment of issues. I must also add that this piece is not about praising someone for doing the needful most especially the issues of payment of salary and arrears of allowances which is the statutory responsibilities of the Governor and the Government to fulfill. Considering where we are coming from most especially our experiences of not too distant past, we should without prejudices commend the commendable efforts of His Excellency Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
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I have been assessing His Excellency's redefined styles of Post Supreme Court judgement leadership of our dear state. My thinking was that, the Governor having won his Supreme Court judgement, was going to be brutal in approach and action. However, he proved me and other kogites wrong by choosing to adopt a more humane, tactful approach and balanced judgement unlike the early phase especially the Pre Supreme Court Judgement when rumor and witchunting dominated the air. The current determined efforts of His Excellency truly represent the New Direction slogan of his administration.
I am particularly pleased with His Excellency for the following obvious reasons as it relates to the welfare of the staff in KSU that I know:
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a) For fulfilling his promises of not going to CARRY OVER the 2016 salary to the year 2017. He has fulfilled this promise with respect to the screened and cleared staff in the University, with the outstanding 3 months salaries - October, November and December already paid into the Zenith Bank for onward disbursement.
b) Very fundamentally, the Governor has also been faithfully redeeming the pledge of remitting 50 million naira monthly which he started from the month of September to offset the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) arrears he inherited. In fact, the November and December remittance came together and has been disbursed accordingly. So far, the Governor has remitted a sum of 200 million naira for the 4 months since he assumed office within a year.
That workers across the state most especially in the University will be celebrating this Xmas with joy of little or no indebtedness is a commendable welfarist approach by the State Government.
It is my earnest prayers that His Excellency should also maintain the promise of prompt payment of salaries with effect from January, 2017 to avoid accumulating salary arrears as we have painfully experienced in our dear state and particularly in our university till lately.
Like Oliver Twist, let me equally use this medium to prevail on His Excellency to rescind the decision on other categories of staff most especially those in KSU that may not be captured in the cleared salary list for payment.
The categories of the affected staff are;
a) The sabbatical staff who have not been paid for well over 5 months. Sabbatical leave is a universal exchange program by universities across the globe. Some of our staff are engaged by other universities across Nigeria and are paid accordingly. Depriving staff on sabbatical with our university of their legitimate entitlement will certainly portray the image of KSU negatively and may also result in litigation that will certainly be decided in their favor.
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b) Those on Study Leave With Pay (SLWP) who have also not been paid for well over 5 months. Granting deserving staff Study Leave With Pay (SLWP) is a standard practice aimed at enhancing manpower development that is not strange to universities across the globe. In fact, TETFUND which provides millions of naira for the training of these categories of staff made it mandatory for the University to grant Study Leave With Pay as a precondition to benefit from the funds. Some of the affected staff that are studying in the UK, Malaysia, USA and other African universities are experiencing severe hardship that is already having telling effects on their studies and performance due to non payment of their salaries.
c) The Contract staff category who were also not paid for well over 5 months. Engaging retired Professors, retired Armed forces and Police personnel in our security unit and other specialized area of needs in the university is not peculiar to KSU alone. This is due to shortage of personnel in the specialized area of needs among other reasons. These categories of staff are usually engaged by the University for a period of one year and renewable depending on the needs of their services. Owing these categories of staff their legitimate entitlement amounts to breach of contractual agreement on the side of the university with needless litigation as the consequence.
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d) Those that were recruited in 2015 that have also not been paid for well over 5 months. Non payment of salary for staff that were engaged in 2015 by the Council of the University because of the needs of the university is equally not tidy. Some of these staff were employed into the security unit who were and are facing severed shortage of personnel due to death, retirement and withdrawal of services among others. Till date, the security unit is severely under staffed to cover the old and new beats due to expansion of the university. Apart from those that were engaged in the security unit, some other senior academics withdrew their services from Kogi State College of Education, Ankpa and joined the services of KSU in 2015. These categories of staff were used for the successful accreditation of the Faculty of Education in 2015. Declaring these categories of staff as "ghost" after the accreditation and disengagement from their former place of employment is humanly not explainable.
If His Excellency can attend to the above listed issues, his welfarist approach in KSU will be regarded as outstanding and the support of all and sundry will be assured.
When a man did well he deserves to be encouraged to do more. Your Excellency, has done well on the ongoing payment of staff salary as promised with the December 20, 2016 as a target deadline.
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