Addressing the press during the protest which took place inside the National assembly Complex, Dayo Fadungba, the spokesman of the Legislative Aides Forum, decried the incessant delay in the payment of their salaries, among many other ill treatments.
He claimed that the recent death of one of the legislative aides, Hussain Abiodun, was due to his inability to foot his medical bills as a result of delay in payment of salaries.
The deceased, who was attached to the Office of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuf Sulaiman Lasun, was said to have suffered appendicitis and was admitted in an Abuja hospital. He died from ruptured appendicitis on June 9 when he allegedly could not pay the N165,000 bill for the surgery.
The legislative aides group also demanded that the management of the National Assembly move away their salary account from Sun Trust Bank, which they christened a micro finance bank, to a proper bank, and to immediately commence the payment of their allowances and other accrued benefits.
The aides also claimed that the management of the National Assembly has consistently sabotaged their efforts to form an association that would give them voice in the parliament.
President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, sent his Deputy Chief of Staff, Gbenga Makanjuola, to address the protesters.
The representative of the Senate President assured the aides that he would write a memo to Saraki that would take care of all their grievances.
The Chief Press Secretary to President of the Senate, Mr. Sanni Onogu, later told journalists that Saraki had summoned the National Assembly Management to a meeting on the matter. (NAN, NE)
A case of an unorganised and systemically failing system – why can’t staff have their individual bank accounts credited for their hard-earned wages? Just as states owe several months of unpaid employee salaries, and expect incremental in IGRs or commitment to service. A friend even claimed that National Youth corpers no longer receive allocated accommodation or allowance and expected to either live on the outskirts of their metropolitan places of work due to exorbitant rent, or live off family to ‘stay sane’. So, how best to indoctrinate the serious-minded graduate into seeking ways of recouping their financial hardship once in full employment through ‘odd’ and unusual methods? Now, somebody died as a result of complacent and laissez faire attitude of the institutional system, where in the first place, the employment institution should take care of individual’s welfare and well-being. Would the deputy speaker have paid for his own medical bill unless he decided to travel abroad as a show of affluence? The problem with Nigerian mentality is so entrenched so much that greed and selfishness will take a lifetime to wean, and will still wallow in the mire of ignorance and self gratification.