From N20k to N10k in just two years — Taraba Street sweepers just took another pay cut, and the agency boss says “if you’re not interested, you can go your way”.

So, here’s the gist from cbinews.tv — the Taraba State Government has cut street sweepers’ monthly pay from N15,000 down to N10,000 under the Operation Keep Taraba Clean programme.

Why? According to Hon. Illiya Kefas, Chairman of the Taraba State Environmental and Sanitation Agency, it’s all about “managing available resources” after the state brought a bunch of new civil servants on board. He confirmed to journalists in Jalingo that yes, May 2026 salaries came in at N10k, not the usual N15k.

This isn’t the first trim. The sweepers were originally signed up in 2023 on N20,000 a month. Then in March 2024, they were told to either take N5,000 less or lose the job, which dropped them to N15k. Now it’s N10k. And if the 50% cut rumour plays out fully, we could be looking at N7,500 next.

Kefas put it bluntly in a text to reporters: “I have the right to ask my people to work at N10,000. Anyone interested will work, and if you are not, you can go your way.” He pointed to tight Federation Account allocations and said the agency also foots the bill for LG coordinators, supervisors, monitoring teams, casual workers across 16 LGAs, plus daily allowances for roadside cleaning team leaders.

His defence? Running sanitation and waste evacuation in Jalingo and beyond costs serious money. “There is nothing wrong to slash their salaries. Do you journalists ask us how we manage the agency?” he queried.

Unsurprisingly, this one’s set to stir debate. With living costs climbing across Nigeria, labour advocates and residents are already raising eyebrows over how low-income workers are expected to cope.

Attribution: cbinews.tv

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