Amidst the mounting tension among federal civil service, ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) employees over unpaid January salaries, there’s also a lingering backlog of N35,000 in wage awards.
The root cause of the non-payment stems from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation’s struggle to finalize the 2024 Appropriation on the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) platform. This failure has, in turn, hindered the release of the personnel warrant for January 2024 salary payments.
General Secretary of the Nigeria Civil Service Union, Bomoi Muhammed Ibraheem, confirms the plight of union members: “Members of the union have not been paid.”
A staff member at the federal secretariat in Abuja told Vanguard that,
”The federal civil servants are frustrated with the delayed payment of January salary. Everybody knows what is going on in Nigeria today.
”The economic situation is unbearable, all because of government policies. The N35,000 wage award promised after the removal of the subsidy on petrol was only paid in September. Now, the government has refused to pay us January salary thereby compounding our woes.
”How do they expect us to meet our responsibilities to our families including school fees and other necessities? We cannot continue like this.”
In an effort to address the growing unrest among its staff, the management of the National Mathematical Centre in Abuja issues an internal memo dated January 31, 2024, titled “Delay in the payment of January 2024 salary,” acknowledging the delay and informing staff that salaries for January 2024 will be delayed beyond the normal schedule.
| Vanguard
