
The National League of Veteran Journalists (NALVEJ) and Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Kwara State on Friday appealed to the state government to pay journalists in its employment their three months salary arrears.
The veteran journalists made this call in a statement signed by its publicity secretary, Mr Clement Obafaiye.
The latest appeal by the NUJ was contained in a statement signed by its chairman and secretary, Abiodun Abdulkareem and Babatunde Jimba respectively.
The National League of Veteran Journalists, also in the statement appealed to Kwara State government, to meet the yearning of their junior colleagues in the state owned media organisations as a matter of urgency.
The statement observed that the hazardous terrain of journalists in the prosecution of their professional career was simply enough to justify the timely payment of their salaries and emoluments.
The NALVEJ pointed out that the non payment of three months salaries, was enough, saying that it was obvious that some other government officials cannot afford not to be paid for one month.
The statement therefore said that it amounts to hypocrisy and double standard for one set of government officials to be paid while others are not paid, adding that what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander.
It then appealed to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed to hastily do something about the plight of the suffering journalists in the state.
The NUJ in its statement pleaded with the state government to commence immediate payment of salary arrears of staff of the state owned media houses.
The union further noted that due to non-payment of backlog of June, July and August salaries, staff of the media establishments have been subjected to untold hardship.
The communique urged the state government to expedite action on the issue to avert possible industrial unrest in the affected organisations. The union appealed to affected workers to remain calm in resolving the salary logjam as efforts are in top gear by the council to positively resolve the issue with the state government.