Nnochiri Chibuzor Chijioke
Dear Governor Alex C. Otti, I had for a while now refrained from writing these open letters to you here on Facebook which is the only avenue I have access to attempt reaching you personally. 
Nnochiri Chibuzor Chijioke And Alex Otti
My reasons for not writing range from the fact that I cannot say I have gotten any sign of these letters reaching your attention to the fact that a few persons have advised me to give your not so nascent government time to unfold what it has in store for Abians, plus other personal reasons. But I'm afraid Sir that I have to try and make this effort once again as an Abia state citizen first and as a civil servant grossly (and I dare say unjustly) affected by the downsides of some of your policies especially as pertaining to the civil service.
In some of my previous letters to which I tagged your Facebook official page as well as some of your media aides, I lamented on issues bothering on non payment of salaries to some staff (including myself) based on problems with the online verification you instituted immediately you assumed office. I must say again that the desire to fish out ghost workers from the civil service system is laudable but where the outcome of this effort has caused untold hardship to genuine civil servants who have either not been able to get verified for reasons not entirely their fault or even gotten verified and still owed arrears of salaries, this does not portray the nobility of your dream about bettering the welfare Sir.
At one point when I was being owed five (5) months as at February, I came to the office one day and met a group of equally troubles colleagues and the discontentment led to a spontaneous protest which took us to the radio house of Flo 94.9 FM Umuahia and subsequently to the office of the Accountant General of the state where we made known our grievances respectively. Sequel to that some of the verified staff were paid a few months arrears (myself three months) but those who were yet to be verified till date haven't received a dime. These are all genuine staff whom I have known some of them personally from as far back as 2006-2007. This kind of harrowing experience does not make your government look good to such people. I have still not been paid two months outstanding arrears (November and June 2023) and I was told that the 13th month bonus given to all civil servants which I didn't get is forever gone.
I do not want to go into the issue of how there has been no wage increase to Abia civil servants to marry the present economic realities, or the complaints by some staff that they are either underpaid or their promotions being denied them. But another fact that I would like to draw attention to is the issue of biometric attendance especially in the local government system.
It is no longer news that local government staff login and out every day (excepting Mondays) and at the end if the month a certain percentage of that attendance is set as benchmark for being eligible to receive salaries. This is not entirely a bad move as it is good to ensure that workers actually do go to work. However I find it unjust that even in the wake of rising economic hardship which has reflected on the ability of workers transporting themselves to work, the benchmark percentage is being increased from 50% (which workers are finding it hard to even meet up) to 70%! And some of these staff are still the same people OWED MONTHS OF SALARIES. That doesn't seem right Sir as one could wonder how they supposed to even be feeding talk more of transporting to work.
In March 2024 for instance, a lot of staff (including myself) were put on the DO NOT PAY LIST because of biometric attendance, but unlike the previous months where the list contains a comprehensive explanation of the reason stating the percentage of the affected staff's attendance, that March list showed no such reasons. And is it not disturbing that even when someone has just missed the benchmark by a minute little percentage (say 2%) THE ENTIRE SALARY is withheld instead of paying such person based on PRO RATA of the percentage they achieved.
Your Excellency Sir, what happens to those withheld salaries? Why is it that no matter the reason a staff gives in the recommended appeal letter in trying to recover their salaries, it is almost impossible to recover them?
And to worsen matters, just last week the bags of rice given as palliative which I believed was supposed to be share to ALL staff who fit into the chosen grade levels (GL 01- GL 07) was distributed using a list which I was told by the staff welfare chairman of Umuahia North LGA was given him to follow strictly by the office of the state Head of Service....this list carefully EXCLUDED everyone who wasn't paid March 2024 salary! So in other words, either they have become "non staff" just by missing one months salaries or it seems right that the same set of people were denied salaries and then also denied the palliative that was meant to cushion the effect of not being paid. This makes it look like it is a purposeful effort to starve US to death! I cannot even explain the anguish I felt that day, after having helped an indigent old staff to bring out his own bag of rice hoping that mine was coming only to reach the last page of the list and discovered alongside a number of staff that our names were not among. It reminded me of when I hoped in vain in December 2023 and the December salary came and later the 13th month....and I didn't get any!
In light of all this Sir, you can imagine my consternation on seeing a current communique going round (see comments section) that we are asked AGAIN to logon to another online platform and begin afresh to do ANOTHER VERIFICATION and upload the same documents which we went through so much stress to do in the previous verification which hasn't quite been long and hasn't even gone successfully for some staff and for which salaries are being withheld!
Your Excellency Sir, please people are questioning the aim of this second verification exercise.
Needless to say that this second verification is a duplication of functions and renders all the pain workers have gone through (and are still going through) as a result of the first verification uncalled for and useless, making it more unbearable.
Please Sir, I conclude by begging you to reconsider some of these your policies on civil servants/civil service and as speedily as possible rectify the wrongs done to some of us. I write these letters with a combination of anguish and hope.
I hope that hope wins
Your citizen and civil servant,
Nnochiri Chibuzo Chijioke
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Opinion