Life has become very difficult for members of staff of the Librarians’ Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN) since the Federal Government removed the parastatal from Budget Funding.
Recall that the Federal Government, last year, announced that it had finally dropped professional bodies and councils of agencies from its budgetary allocations in the 2024 budget.
This implies that the agencies are now fully responsible for their personnel, overhead and capital expenditures, according to the recommendations of the Stephen Oronsaye’s report.
The removal from the budgetary allocation left some of the agencies in a fix, including the LRCN which has been finding it difficult to pay the salaries of its workers. NewsNGR gathered that the staff have not received their salaries since January when the policy became effective.
LRCN, established as a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Education, is responsible for providing leadership in the field of librarianship by regulating library and information science and its practice in Nigeria.
The chairman of the Nigeria Civil Service Union, LRCN Unit, Prince Gambari Shuaib Siyanbola, while speaking to NewsNGR on the issue, stated that the Council was “unjustly” removed from the Budget Funding, arguing that LRCN was a regulatory body and not a revenue-generating body.
Siyanbola who is an accountant at the agency, explained that the annual personnel budget for the Council is over N200 million, adding that the council only generates N40m or a little above that annually.
“So what is the rationale for removing us from the Budget? The truth is, the funds we are generating are not up to the standards of the other organizations. Our personnel budget is about N200 million annually. In a year, I can tell you that we do not generate up to N40 million.
“That money is to take care of the stakeholders and the librarians forum; their induction, conference, and other things. We are in charge of providing services and not generating revenue,” he said.
The chairman stated that the situation which has made payment of salary an issue, has left the staff in great distress.
“We have children’s school fees, rent, and many other things to pay. Some of the staff have loan obligations on which interests have accumulated. An organization gave them a loan because they are pensionable government workers which they know they can pay.
“Now, suddenly, they can’t pay, and it is accruing. I receive pressure every day, and the government is not doing anything. Some people can die out of this situation,” he lamented.
He stated that the Union had approached the management of the Council severally to urge it to find a solution to the issue, but that all their pleas had fallen on deaf ear.
He accused the Registrar of the Council, Jafaru Abdullahi Wase, of trying to protect his political career instead of disclosing to the government the true situation of things; which is that ‘the Council cannot fund itself.’
“We have been talking to our management and they have been making promises. They kept deceiving us, saying they were working on our salaries. At a point, they came out with the truth, telling us that they were helpless on the matter. The registrar himself who is a political office holder, is maybe protecting his career. He is not taking our fight as his,” he said.
Siyanbola disclosed that when the Union had perceived that nothing meaningful would come out from its interaction with the Council’s management, it decided to write to the minister of education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, as the Council was under the supervision of the ministry.
In the letter dated February 21, 2024, the staff through its Union, expressed concern over the non-funding of the Council which has resulted in the non-payment of their salaries.
In the letter titled, “Self-Funding of Parastatals Under the Supervision of the Federal Ministry of Education, Librarian Registration Council of Niger (LRCN),” and signed by the Assistant General Secretary of the Federal Body of the Union, Daniel Otakpo, the Union urged the minister to intervene on the matter and ensure that the salaries of the staff are not only paid, but that the Council returned to being funded by the government.
Siyanbola stated that their letter went unanswered, prompting the Union to write another one on April 15, 2024. The second letter expressed dismay over the minister’s non-response to the first mail that was sent to him in February.
The Union threatened that if the issues it had raised were not resolved within a space of 21 days, it would be left with no option than to stage an indefinite peaceful protest at the ministry until the matter is resolved.
“We are appealing again to your office for immediate resolution within 21 days of this letter, as the Union will be left with no option but to stage a continuous peaceful protest in your ministry until this matter is resolved and staff backlog of salaries are also paid. Kindly accept the assurances of our esteemed regards please,” the letter read in part.
However, the 21-day Ultimatum given by the Union elapsed on May 6, yet there was no response from the ministry.
“How can we send such a letter with our ultimatum and there was no response from the minister? At least, he should have put a call to the Union. As we are now, we are in limbo. We have told the management that we will fight,” he said.
On its next move, Siyanbola stated that the Union would follow the Labour Law by still writing two more letters to the ministry before taking further action.
“We still have to write, giving an ultimatum of another two weeks and another one week, before taking action,” he noted.
In March this year, the federal government inaugurated a 10-member committee to look into the Oronsaye report and see how it could be implemented.
The general mandate of the committee among other things included, ‘to review the current mandates, and to understand the existing functions, responsibilities and objectives outlined in the mandates of the agencies.’
It was also urged to identify redundancies and overlaps or conflicting objectives among the mandates of different organizational units.
With this mandate, Siyanbola argued that the removal of LRCN from the Budget Funding in January was premature and unjust.
“We filled out a form in December last year where we were asked to indicate the agency we wanted to move to. Suddenly, we did not know what happened. I believe that the registrar did not want us to go because if we go, which agency will he be heading?” queried Siyanbola.
The Chairman who claimed that some of the staff had moved to other agencies, stated that there are about 80 staff in the Council.
In his plea to the minister, Siyanbola said, “We want our backlog of salaries paid. We want an explanation on what they want to do with us. They should pay us our salaries or merge us with any of the MDAs. If they want the agency to still remain, they should return us to the Budget funding.
“If nothing is done, we will take over the ministry until something is done. We believe a sensitive minister will not let that happen.”
NewsNGR contacted the Ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Boriowo Folashade on the issue and she promised to give a response on Monday.
When contacted on Monday, she stated that the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Didi Walson-Jack was unavailable for comment.
“She is at the National Assembly,” she said.