By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor
As a parting shot for year
2018, Nigerian governors on Monday reiterated their rejection of the
demand by the Nigerian Labour Congress for the payment of N30,000 as
minimum wage to workers, insisting that they had other competing needs
to contain with and would therefore not use more than 50 percent of
their income for settling workers.
In a strongly worded
statement made available to Vanguard on Monday, the Nigerian Governor’s
Forum, made it clear that they would have paid the N30,000 but regretted
their inability to do so due to what they described as ‘times are hard’
and because of financial constraints and other limitations that have
tied the hands of many states.
The statement, which was signed by
the spokesman for the NGF, Abdulrazque Bello-Barkindo, was in response
to a claim by the NLC that governors were simply refusing to pay the new
wage and that those who diverted billions shelled out by the federal
government as bailout funds should be probed.
The governors
castigated the NLC for demanding that their financial books should be
made known to the union, saying that having shown their financial status
to the President during two meetings on the minimum wage, there were
under no obligation to show same to the NLC.
The governors also
stated pointedly that having made a marginal increment of N22.500 from
the current N18,000, they had nothing more to add to the minimum wage
and it was left for the NLC to consider and accept that as what was
available and possible for now.
The statement said: “Let it be
known that governors have met the President twice on this matter and
presented their books to buttress their point. First, a batch of state
governors, led by the NGF Chairman, Governor Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar of
Zamfara State, in company of governors Ambode of Lagos, Ugwuanyi of
Enugu, Bagudu of Kebbi attended a closed door meeting with the President
where the financial standing of six states, one each from all the
geo-political regions in the country, were shown to the President.
“Shortly
after that, the President requested all the states to forward their
books, their revenues, both internally generated and their earnings from
the Federation Account along with their other sources of revenue, for
examination. The president appears satisfied with the governors’
position, thus the decision to set up a new committee.
“It is
important to add that, there has never been a time in this country, when
states have embarked on a more aggressive revenue drive than they are
doing today. And this is without exception or prejudice to any state.
“To
put the records straight, governors are not under any obligation, by
law, to show their books to the NLC. But they have, in their pursuit of
the understanding of the union, done so, not once, but several times
over, with a view to letting NLC know that what they are asking for is
neither realistic nor sustainable. Yet, NLC remains adamant that its
will must be done, or the heavens will fall.
“The president at
his last meeting with governors (December 15, 2018) had admonished them
(governors) to expect harsher economic tides from New Year’s, thus
validating governors’ fears that even those states that had hitherto
looked comfortable financially, may in the course of the new year,
falter.
“Moreover, since that last meeting, of the middle of
December, between the Governors and Mr. President, the economists of the
Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat have been working closely with the
relevant departments in all the states of the federation, and looking
into other ways of collating financial standing of states that will help
the President in ameliorating the situation.
“Already, revenue
to states has dropped drastically while demands by competing needs keep
rising astronomically. Last year alone, revenue to states dropped from
N800bn when the Tripartite Committee was appointed (November 2017) to
between N500bn and N600bn by the time Ms. Amma Pepple submitted its
report in October 2018.
“Moreover, state governors are making
concerted efforts to improve education, health and infrastructure and
for this, would not therefore dedicate their states’ entire resources to
workers’ salaries alone, knowing that workers constitute less than 5%
of the nation’s population. In that regard, governors emphatically
announced, collectively, that no state would devote more than 50% of its
revenue to salaries.
“To therefore insist that states must
oblige the NLC its demands, regardless of the economic gloom that stares
the nation in the face is most unpatriotic and a deliberate attempt to
hold the nation, especially the president, to ransom, this being an
election year.
“At this point it is important to remind the NLC
that most governors exhibited a high sense of responsibility and concern
for the plight of workers by ensuring that most of them were paid their
December salaries ahead of time. Some even received several months’
salary arrears that was owed them, and they are happy with their
governors.
“This is not the time for the NLC to destroy the
existing conviviality that is already building-up between workers and
their governors, especially in those states of the federation where
governors are stepping up to the plate with the right decisions,” the
governors said.
Source:- Vanguardngr
Leave a Reply