The federal government states that it is committed to clearing the remaining three months’ arrears of N35,000 owed to civil servants without further delay.

Bawa Mokwa, spokesman for the office of the accountant-general of the federation, said this in a statement on Friday.

The federal government started paying the second tranche of the outstanding ₦35,000 wage award arrears on Thursday.

The federal government had earlier paid one month out of the initial five months of outstanding arrears.

Mr Mokwa said that with the payment of the second tranche, there remained three tranches to exhaust the wage award arrears.

“Contrary to insinuations in some quarters, the federal government has not reneged on payment of the wage award arrears.

“The federal government will continue to pay the wage award in instalments of N35,000 per month until the outstanding arrears are exhausted,” he said.

Some civil servants in Abuja had earlier complained about the unexplained delay in the payment of the wage award.

Uche Anune, a civil servant, stated that the government should not wait until workers feel agitated or start complaining before taking action.

“I am seeing a pattern that whenever there is anything at stake, the government tends to be relaxed about it until some people start agitating or engaging in some form of protest before they act. That should not be the case,” he said.

Joseph Edeh urged the government to clear the outstanding four months’ arrears of the wage award rather than paying monthly.

Mr Edeh said the delay had cast doubts on the sincerity of the federal government.

“On the issue of this N35,000 wage award, honestly, as a civil servant and as a Nigerian, I have lost faith.

“They told us that we had an outstanding balance of five months; after paying one month, they stopped. Why are they treating us like this? Nobody is happy about this.

“What they should do is clear the arrears, pay the remaining four months at once, and forget about it,” he said.

Franca Ofili urged the federal government to fulfill its promise and alleviate the burden of expectation for civil servants.

“The government should try to clear the arrears because that N35,000 can go a long way to solve a lot of financial problems. We need the money; they should clear the outstanding four months’ arrears at once,” she said. 

(NAN)