Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State has said that regular payment of salaries to workers and gratuity to retirees were part of the reasons he was elected and should not be celebrated.

He revealed that he was initially accused of attempting to score cheap political points for doing the right thing in offsetting the backlog of gratuities, which dated back to 2007.

Speaking at the weekend in Yenagoa during a conference on “Promoting Local Government Workers’ Welfare: The Bayelsa Model, the Governor maintained that the challenges he met on assuming office necessitated the reforms in the local government administration, as he revealed that most of the councils had huge financial deficits and relied on the state government for bailouts.

Diri said his vision for government at all levels was to secure the livelihood of the people, enhance food availability and generate more revenue.

He restated his directive to council chairmen to embark on farming in areas of comparative advantage in order to boost food supply in the state.
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“The moment you retire at 60 or 65 years, you become a senior citizen, and you are entitled to your gratuity. In other climes, it is taken for granted. Therefore, we should not celebrate it.

“Initially, some people queried it when I started immediately paying gratuities. They said previous administrations did not pay.

“I reminded such critics that my father was a teacher, a headmaster. If not for the opportunity of a child like me, he would have died without his pensions and gratuity.

“Having that at the back of my mind, one of the priorities I had was to ensure that the backlog of gratuities was cleared. I recall a particular month we had a windfall in our allocation, I directed the payment of N7 billion for gratuity and pensions.”

He commended his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, for effective supervision of the councils and for ensuring a proper implementation of the reforms.

Earlier, the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) had honoured him as the Best Governor on Local Government Reforms in Nigeria.

NULGE President, Comrade Aliyu Kankara, presented the award to the governor, saying Governor Diri’s achievements include transforming the local government system in the state through the introduction of fiscal policy reforms that repositioned the third tier of government for better service delivery, staff welfare, regular promotions and financial benefits.

The NULGE president said implementation of N80,000 minimum wage for council workers and an additional 25 and 30 per cent salary increase, as well as the government’s support to councils in the payment of primary school teachers’ salaries, were some of the heartwarming testimonies of the union members.

He described as unprecedented the governor’s timely payment of pensions and gratuities to local government retirees, saying Bayelsa was the first state in the country to pay retirement entitlements immediately after service.

“The Governor of Bayelsa State has excelled where many other state governors have failed in human capital development by prioritising the welfare of workers in the state, particularly those at the grassroots level.

“From available information, Governor Diri’s administration has paid over N20 billion as arrears of gratuity to retired workers in Bayelsa State since he was sworn in in 2020.”

National President of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Dr Kabir Sani, also appreciated the governor for improving the lives of local government workers in the state, including those from his union.

In a welcome address, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Chief Thompson Amule, said before the Diri administration, only four councils managed to regularly pay salaries, while the others were insolvent and had months of outstanding salary arrears, pensions, gratuity and death benefits.

Amule also stated that workers’ promotion had stagnated for more than five years but that the present administration swiftly introduced fiscal reforms to engender financial security in the system.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, the chairman of Kolokuma/Opokuma council, Mr Lelei Tariye, said the local government system in the state was working because the government adhered strictly to autonomy for the councils even before the Supreme Court judgment.

The high point of the event was the symbolic presentation of N12 billion cheques to over 1000 retirees across the eight local government areas.