14th January, 2013
Offices of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) across Nigeria have been under lock and key for a week now and things are not about the change, workers said on Sunday.
The workers embarked on an indefinite strike a week ago to compel the government pay about 69-month salary arrears they claim is owed to NIPOST pensioners.
Hundreds of thousands of mails and parcels remain stuck at post offices across Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with a big mailing business.
Workers have said that they had given the government many warning notices in the past years but their demands have never been met.
“How can the government owe these old people 69 months salary arrears?” a staff asked, adding, “do they want to kill them?” Gates at various post offices remained locked and plastered with placards and posters on Sunday.
One placards read: “Postmaster General. Accountant General of the Federation, enough is enough. Pay our 69 month pension arrears.”
A staff told our correspondent on Sunday that the strike will continue tomorrow as the government remains unconcerned.
“They are not talking to us. The government is death to our demands. It is an indefinite strike,” he said.
He, however, hinted that with some money, parcels could be claimed through the back door.
“There is nothing money cannot do,” he said. He refused to be identified. But he works at a post office located at Adeola Adeku, Victoria Island, Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
—Simon Ateba