Former Council Office Holders To Get Salary Arrears

Reprieve may have come the way of some former office holders in Local Government/Local Council Development Areas (LGA/LCDAs) of the state, as the Lagos House of Assembly has directed that their backlog of salary arrears, tenure allowances and severance package be paid.

The former officer holders are chairmen and councilors that had served in various 57 LGA/LCDAs from 1999-2002; 2004- 2007 and 2008-2011.

On the best modality of effecting the payments, the House directed House Committee Chairmen on Local Government Administration and Chieftaincy Affairs, Budget, Finance and the Majority Leader of the House to meet with State Commissioner for Finance, his counterpart for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affair, Chairman Conference 57 and Chairman of Local Government Administration Commission, to jointly advice the House. The team has two weeks to submit their resolution.

Speaker of the House, Adeyemi Ikuforiji said at the plenary, held penultimate Monday, that the advice was important to guide the House on the best way to effect the payment without delay or excuses.

Ikuforiji added that the House was being careful in taking the ‘withdraw from source’ option, so as not to contradict itself, citing that the Assembly had once kicked against such modality of payment.

The Speaker stressed that all the past office holders have to be paid, “but if we tell the local councils to pay, some of them will still find excuses not to do so.”

Continuing, he said: “One of those things militating against our development generally is this lack of appreciation for services rendered. Whenever people leave office, we have a culture of treating them shabbily and make them feel unwanted, forgetting that today’s men would no longer be there tomorrow.  It is not the way to go, especially at the council level. But we don’t learn from history,” he said.

The House Committee on Local Government Administration and Chieftaincy Affairs, that looked into the matter, following a petition to the House, had recommended that LGA/LCDAs that were yet to settle outstanding allowances to political office holders that served between 1999 and 2002, should commence the process of payment immediately.

The committee headed by Moshood Oshun also recommended that the LGA/LCDAs should commence the process of payment of severance allowances to political office holders who served between 2008 and 2011, while Chief Muritala Kayode Abisoye should be paid his outstanding salaries of 22 months being the period he served as Chairman of Epe Local Government before his impeachment.

The petition/report is the oldest of all outstanding reports before this Assembly, dating back to July 2012.

Lawmaker representing Agege I Constituency, Mudashiru Obasa, noted that the main reason for the backlog was the inconvenient salary scale operating in the LGA/LCDAs, citing that the scale has not been reviewed since the councils were increased from 20 to 57.

He said it is still the same scale that is used despite increase in council units and the implication is unbearable increased in overhead cost for the councils.

Bisi Yusuf representing Alimoso I, however, said to review the salary scale of Lagos council office holders, is like saying they should be under-paid, compare to their counterparts in the Federation.

First Weekly Magazine