By Pita Chib, Minna

Investigation has revealed the outcry in Niger State over the trip to Ghana for a one week retreat for the 25 local government chairmen in the state despite the inability of some of  local government councils to pay the salaries of its workers.

This resulted to general outcry in the state as the retreat in Ghana is coming barely two months after they were inaugurated into office on January,10th, 2020.

Similar retreat was organized for the council chairmen in Kaduna on January 12th, two days after they were sworn in as local government Chairmen.

The Staff of the local government areas who decried the trip has wondered why the retreat could not be done in Nigeria, describing the retreat as a waste of money that could have gone a long to pay workers salaries.

Our correspondent also gathered that most of the local council chairmen could not pay the salaries of their staff in February and it was reliably gathered that health and education staff in the local government areas have not received February salaries.

Further checks revealed that out of the 25 local government chairman who went on the retreat to Ghana, 13 councils cannot pay the salaries of their staff.

The 13 councils include,  Chanchaga, Bida, Suleja, Kontagora, Mokwa, Paikoro, Shiroro, Lavun, Lapai, Agaie, paikoro, Rijau, and Tafa.

Our correspondent gathered that the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs had adopted a method of using the surplus from the other local government areas to augment the allocation of the affected local government councils to enable these councils to be able to pay their staff.

However, during the last meeting regarding the sharing formula from the Federal Allocation held before the trip to Ghana, there was a strong disagreement as to the councils who could comfortably pay their staff vehemently refuse to part with their surplus.

These councils were said to have told the chairmen of the councils without adequate funds to reduce their workforce if they cannot pay their staff, saying they are being cheated from what belongs to them.

Consequently the meeting ended in a deadlock as none of the buoyant local government councils agreed to share their surplus to the other councils.

However the Ghana trip of the local government Chairmen was confirmed in the Niger state House of Assembly plenary by the Member representing Suleja Constituency, Shuaibu Iya

Iya, who was responding to the motion moved by one of the legislators to call the Commissioner for Environment to the House of Assembly to explain certain things concerning state environment, said that the commissioner traveled alongside the 25 local government Chairmen to Ghana.

"As we are talking, some of us may not be aware, the Commissioner of Environment and the 25 local government Chairmen in Niger state are on their way to Ghana.

"They are going to Ghana to open windows for the state to partner with some companies outside the country particularly in Ghana and they also want to learn from them."

The trip and the inability of the council chairmen to pay salaries have further enraged the public as the declarer their displeasure over what they term 'wastage of government resources.'

One of the affected staff who refuses to give his name due to fear of being victimized or sacked,8 said that the Chairmen had no focus and plan for the councils as they are busy wasting money traveling out instead of seeing to the welfare of their staff and paying their salaries.

"This is unacceptable. Do these people know what they are in the office for? We are here dying, I cannot even feed my family and someone is taking the money meant to be used to pay my salary to travel for a retreat in Ghana.

"The other time, it was Kaduna, now Kaduna and Nigeria have become too small for them so they have to travel to Ghana. What did they do with what they learned in the training in Kaduna and now, they are going for another one in Ghana. These people do not have shame in any way."

Another staff who has his name simply as Abdullahi said, "What do you expect? When your principal jets out of the country as every single second, you will follow suit. They are simply following the step of the Governor who put them in power.

"Imagine not paying salary and then the next thing we hear is that they all pack themselves to Ghana, if this is not irresponsibility at the highest order, I wonder what else is."

The Chief Press Secretary, to Governor of Niger State, Mary Berje when contacted confirmed the Council Chairmen were in Ghana but said they were not there for a retreat.

Berje said that the council chairmen were in Ghana in furtherance to the state Governor's earlier visit to Jonsang waste recycling company for effective waste management in the state.

According to her, the reason for the visit is to ensure the success of the new approach to keeping the state clean, a approach in which the council chairmen are critical stakeholders.

"The Accra based recycling group of companies is expected to establish an outfit in the state to take care of waste sorting and organic waste composting plant, plastic recycling and waste bins manufacturing plant, tricycle assembly plant and the state-of-the -art liquid waste processing plant