Nigerian Press Council speaks on non-payment of staff salaries since January

The Nigerian Press Council (NPC) has reacted to media reports that accumulated staff salaries and the establishment’s overhead have not been paid since January.

Some workers who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja described their living conditions as pathetic.

However, Executive Secretary Dili Ezughah’s press statement attributed the delay in paying the workers’ salaries to “the erroneous removal of the agency from budget”.

He said the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office “were already working frantically to ensure the resumption of payment of salaries of NPC staff, possibly by this month”.

“The Executive Secretary, while acknowledging the hardship the staff were passing through as a result of the erroneous removal of the agency from the budget, said they had never resorted to reckless comments or pernicious propaganda as depicted in the said report.

“On the converse, he said the staff had exhibited uncommon resilience and commitment to duty, believing that one day the human error would be rectified,” the statement added.

He said most of the staff members of the council never wavered in the joyful anticipation of their arrears of salaries any moment from now.

He expressed gratitude to President Tinubu “for his fatherly role in coming to the rescue of the Nigerian Press Council.”

He equally expressed appreciation for the intervention of the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, and the National Assembly in the matter.

They urged the federal government to rescind its decision to stop funding the council’s activities and salaries.

A management staff member who spoke to NAN on anonymity confirmed that the government had stopped funding the organisation.

The officer said the Budget Office of the Federation sent a memo to the council in June 2023 stating that the federal government would no longer fund the organisation from January 2024.

Established under the Nigerian Press Council Act No 85 of 1992, the parastatal under the Ministry of Information and National Orientation is statutorily empowered to ensure ethical press standards and maintain high professional standards for the Nigerian press.