The Kwara Government says it is doing everything in its power to find a sustainable solution to the salary crisis in the state.
Dr Muyideen Akorede, the Senior Special Assistant to the state Governor on Media and Communications, stated made this known in a statement released in Ilorin.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the statement was issued in the wake of a call by the Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU) on the state government to prioritise the payment of salary arrears to teachers, local government workers and others.
Akorede said the inability of the state government to pay salaries was caused by the huge drop in federal allocation to all tiers of government in the country.
He also said the inability of the institutions to raise their share of the internally generated revenue to augment the federal government subvention as earlier agreed, contributed to the non-payment of the salaries.
“Nevertheless, the government has commenced the process of remedying the situation with the payment of 5 month’s arrears to workers in the College of Arabic and Islamic Studies Ilorin,’’ the statement said.
Akorede said government released N50million to the Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin last week, and that the balance of N17million would be released soon.
According to the statement, the remaining tertiary institutions in the state will be paid in the due course and as funds become available.
The state government explained that the drop in allocation to the local government by more than 50 percent, rather than the operation of the statutory Joint Accounts allocation Committee (JAAC), was responsible for salary arrears at the local government councils.
The government also assured IEDPU that it was already working on its recommendation to focus on agriculture and solid minerals development for diversifying the state’s economy.
It stressed, however, that these measures were long term and could not be relied on to solve the current problems bedevilling all tiers of government in the country.
The governor’s aide restated Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed’s commitment to ending the salary payment problem in the state.
Akorede also restated the governor’s commitment to the ongoing verification of staff and prioritisation of basic education teachers’ salaries in the distribution of local government allocation. (NAN)