OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR IFEANYI UGWUANYI: SUBSTITUTION OF ORIGINAL ESBS WORKERS AND URGENT INTERVENTION INTO THE CONTINUED INDEBTEDNESS OF ESBS MANAGEMENT TO GUEST ARTISTES
It is not out of place if we had to write to you at this crucial moment, using this medium since all parties concern have refused to break the silence.
We the undersigned under the aegis of Guests Artistes of Enugu State Broadcasting Service, Enugu, are constrained by the prevailing scenario currently prevailing in the establishment to make this representation for your perusal and consideration.
For the avoidance of doubt, we were severally and formally employed as guest artistes in the establishment which engagement spans between three years and eight years down the line. As demeaning as the stipend that came with the appointment letter was, vis-a-vis the job description, we had over the years nonetheless diligently applied ourselves to our individual schedules and available records show that we variously lived up to our expectations.
It also needs be mentioned that along with the terms of engagement came a promise that we shall in due course be elevated to the status of full-fledged permanent staff in the establishment. This promise as it were had over the years spurred us to give the job our all and indeed some of our colleagues who are connected, as it were, had this collective dream fulfilled as they got converted. This unfortunately did not materialise in our own case as our expectation gradually but steadily progressed from disappointment to outright nightmare.
As we write, we are being owed 3 to 4 years of stipend before the establishment was contracted to Mr. Jika Attoh, who acted as Managing Director and now Deputy Managing Director. The reorganisation that followed left us locked out for over a year and half from the establishment by the Jika Attoh-led management who severally threatened us with security personnel not to go anywhere near the gate of ESBS.
This action was clearly against his earlier promises that all of us were to be retained and paid our arrears of stipend. But we came to the shocking realisation that we had been replaced by Jika Attoh with his church members as well as friends and family members.
Alarmingly, the transfer of staff to ministries and other agencies and our subsequent substitution with his cronies afforded them the opportunity to pay themselves jumbo salaries ranging from #500,000 to 2.5 million naira respectively, such that monies we would have been paid for ten years went to them in a space of one year.
The above scenarios in a nutshell captures our present disconcerting predicament even as the unfolding scheme of events following the reorganization in the establishment appear not have given our peculiar plight any consideration. Our mountain of arrears of monthly stipend is nowhere in sight nor were we in the list of staff who were deployed to various ministries in the state civil service.
In other words, we have been used and dumped and this practice not only run counter to the populist humane policy of the present government of Enugu State but is also completely alien to the spirit of the administration of the day.
It is our hope and confidence that bringing our plight through this medium to the public domain will not only serve to expose the cruelty that has marked the character of labour relation practised in ESBS by successive administration against us and the inhuman treatment meted on us by Jika Attoh, but it will also enable state government to fully appraise our predicament with a view to addressing them.
All said, we have been left in the lurch as it were, without any means of livelihood and life has been unbearable even as our fate continue to hang in the balance. It is worthy of mention at this juncture with all due respect, we all are no less entitled to all rights and privileges that pertains thereto as against the near slave labour bereft of any iota of fellow feeling that now appear to be our lot. And we make bold to ask.... if there is no more dignity in labour or does a labourer no longer deserves his wages?
We are encouraged all the more by the fact that we have a listening government in Enugu State presided over by a God-fearing Governor who will surely take steps to save our souls from this unfortunate dilemma if this representation is brought to his notice.
Our prayers Your Excellency are that:
(1) We be restored to our previews positions and be considered for absorption into Enugu State Civil Service like our counterparts that were deployed by the State Civil Service Commission.
(2) That our 3 years arrears of stipend be paid to enable us address our embarrassing financial situation.
We confidently and earnestly await your response as we pray God to guide you as you take steps to address the issues raised in this memo in the interest of our mutual humanity.
OGECHUKWU EZE REX IGBODO NNENNA OGBU
For and, on behalf of the 45 unpaid and un-recalled Guest Artistes.

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