Aggrieved staff and journalists at the popular Nigerian media outfit, Leaders and Company Limited (publishers of THISDAY Newspaper), today May 9, 2013, shut down the media house in protest of non-payment of their wages.

It would be recalled that the embattled Chairman/Editor-in-Chief, Nduka Obaigbena, last month
blamed the company’s failure to pay its workers’ salaries for the past six months on the activities of Boko Haram.
An online publication, The Eagle Online, in a two-part series, narrated the challenges some of Thisday staff face.

The online medium had said that the lack of salaries has negatively affected the workers to an extent that two of them – Agaga Silver, a staff in the maintenance sector of the Lagos office, and the Gombe State Correspondent, Saka Ibrahim, recently lost their lives after management failed to meet their requests for their salaries to enable them pay for their hospital bills when they took ill.

It also cited the case of the Cross River State Correspondent, Jude Okwe, who is suffering from a serious kidney condition and cannot afford the medical bill, hence, the state government took up the bill.
That perhaps explained why irate staff in conjunction with the Nigerian Union of Journalists decided to seal off the operations of Thisday to compel the management to address the issue properly.

Although Obaigbena, in a memo to the staff, last month promised to clear the debt within 30 days, it is obvious he doesn't wish to fulfil such obligation.

The memo read: “Dear Colleagues, following several enquiries, I write to notify you that we are working very hard to pay delayed salaries,” Mr. Obaigbena said in the memo to the workers. “The process has already started in Abuja and should end within the next 30 days when ALL arrears of salaries and entitlements would have been settled and we resume payments when due.”

“As you are well aware, as a company, we had long put the issue of delayed salaries behind us and staff were being paid on time when we had the misfortune of a terrorist attack on our Abuja offices in April last year during which our buildings, million-Dollar printing and computer-to-plate equipment were gutted. And we sadly lost two lives – one of whom was our security official.

“Our insurance did not cover the losses as we were not insured for War Risk – no one planned for a terror attack in Nigeria and so we were left to fend for ourselves. Despite that, we continued to meet our commitments as due. But when the cost of outsourcing printing to third parties caught up with us, things began to slow,” Mr. Obaigbena said.
He said “after paying over N600 million in unplanned costs to outside printers, we began to feel the pain from October last year when many of you began to experience some delays in salary payments.”

“We could have cut costs by reducing staff, but given the circumstances we chose keep all staff until things got better. For many it is so easy to forget we had a terror attack and are losing monies everyday because of it.
“What we have decided to do is to sell non-core assets to pay off all debt and buy new printing and production equipments for Abuja. That process is on.

I just thought in view of the current negativity, I should communicate directly with you all, to assure you that all will be well. I thank you for your understanding and continuing loyalty to the company. We Shall Overcome. With continuing regards, Nduka,” the memo read.

Whichever way you tend to look at it, this might not be the best of time for THISDAY (touted as one of the foremost standard news media in Nigeria).

http://www.tundeola.com/2013/05/thisday-building-in-lagos-abuja-sealed.html