Nigeria: Chairperson of the NAWOJ in Imo State suspended for requesting salary

May 4, 2020, Imo State-- Vivian Ottih, lawyer and senior editor with the government-owned IBC Orient FM radio station was “suspended indefinitely” from her job after messaging a government official on Facebook about her three months of unpaid salary on May 4th.

Four days after the message she sent to State Governor concerning her unpaid salaries, she received a letter from the acting director-general of the corporation which reads: “I am directed to let you know that this your attitude caused serious embarrassment to Imo State Government thereby ridiculing the government in the eyes of the public with the sole aim of sabotaging the government.”

Information commissioner interviewed on the issue claimed that the government wanted to pay workers’ salaries centrally in order to eliminate “ghost workers”, instead of allowing the various establishments to collect money from the state government to pay their staff as was done in the past. 

Mrs. Ottih is not the only one owed by the IBC, she made the appeal for the payment of all the workers’ salary because she was under pressure from fellow journalists and she contacted the Governor as part of her role at Nigerian Association of Women Journalists. 

CFWIJ congratulates Mrs. Ottih for her selfless act of camaraderie and would like to remind all news agencies, including those that are state-owned of their contractual obligations towards employees, who deserve fair, dignified and on-time payments.