L-R: Uchechukwu Ilikwu (monarch), Ibibia Worika (secretary to state government), Ibok ete Ibas,(sole administrator) and Inyingi Brown (Acting head of service) during 2025 Rivers State Civil Service Week celebration
…Unpaid civil servants raise alarm, plan march to Govt House
The Rivers State government under state of emergency which ordered another biometric screening of state workers has announced saving of N5bn from the August 2025 salary. This has however stirred anger from workers who said they were yet to be paid before declaring what was saved.
Ibok-ete Ibas, the sole administrator, said the N5bn savings followed a comprehensive staff verification exercise. He said so on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, during the grand finale of the 2025 Civil Service Week Celebration held at the Obi Wali International Conference Centre in Port Harcourt.
The statement has however elicited panic as workers who are yet to receive their salaries or those yet to do verification think the door has been shut.
This is especially as the administrator stated that the verification exercise successfully identified and removed non-existent staff and impostors from the government payroll.
He had emphatically declared that the recovered funds would be immediately channeled into critical development projects and programmes designed for the direct benefit of the people of Rivers State.
“The ₦5bn saved is not just a figure; it is a testament to our commitment to fiscal responsibility. These funds will now be strategically invested in critical infrastructure and social projects to accelerate the sustainable development of Rivers State,” the administrator believed to be on his way out told the people of the state.
BusinessDay findings around the state capital indicate that workers have begun gathering to fight for their salaries before it would be declared ‘ghost salaries’ and returned to the treasury.
Workers have notified their unions at different work centres asking them to save those who have not been verified or those verified but not paid.
Some workers told their leaders that those who retired within the period of state of emergency have become stranded.
A circular from one of the bursary of one of parastatal pay points blamed the salary crisis to alleged technical hitches. The circular which this Correspondent sighted said: “We empathize with our colleagues who are yet to receive their salaries for the affected month (August). As you may be aware, the delay in the payment of salaries by the Rivers State Government to some staff of most Ministries, Departments, and Agencies was due to technical hitches occassioned by the change of the originating bank.”
The bursary said: “We feel your pain and implore you to be patient with the process.”
The situation is also said to be the same at the state’s University where the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is said to have been under pressure. The leadership is said to have been pressured to down tools immediately. The members are said to have threatened to take unilateral action by marching to the Government House if the ASUU leadership failed to take their situation seriously.
For this reason, ASUU RSU is said to have called for an emergency congress meeting. The members are being advised to reserve their comments and make sure they attended that meeting.
The members are being urged not to allow ethnic sentiments to becloud the call to action in this matter. The source said: “The Irony of life is that very serious and difficult challenges do not know one’s ethnicity or LGA or political affiliations or sympathy.
“We must look at these challenges and actively engage by any means necessary to resolve them.”
The anger of the workers is that the state government should not have hurriedly declared N5bn as being saved when many workers were yet to be paid and when the verification seemed not over whereas verifications in the past lasted over two years.
Ibas however seems to be fighting to capture the heart of the state’s workforce. At the event where he revealed saving N5bn, themed “Five Years to 2030: Accelerating Public Service Delivery for a Sustainable Future,” served as a platform to honour the state’s civil servants.
He described them as the backbone of the administration and as unsung heroes.
In his address, Ibas outlined a vision for a revitalized civil service, announcing a series of transformative reforms already underway:
Enhanced Welfare: An upward review of salaries and allowances for Heads of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to bridge the wage gap with political office holders. A new N85,000 minimum wage has been implemented at the local government level.
He also mentioned capacity building, pensioner support of N2.6bn, mandatory health & insurance enrolment, and media revitalization. Many wonder why he did not start these measures when he began six months ago.
The event also featured the unveiling of the new Rivers State Civil Service Handbook and the inaugural edition of The Bureaucrat magazine by the Acting Head of Service.
