The staggering economy of Nigeria has hit the 36 state governors in the country and they have in turn declared on Thursday that they can no longer implement the N18,000 minimum wage for workers of the various state civil service.
Many of the state governors, since last year, had not found it easy paying workers or meeting simple constitutional duties owing to the fallen oil revenue to the country which also affected their allocations from the federation account.
The biting situation in some of the states was cushioned with a bail-out fund from the Federal Government.
The chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum and governor of Zamfara state, Abdulaziz Yari, had called the urgent meeting to discuss issues of national importance.
After the very crucial meeting on Thursday at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the governors agreed that they have been affected by the dwindling prices of oil and as such, would find it difficult meeting the salary obligation.
They want to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari to discuss issues concerning the country’s economy.
Part of the communique the governors read through their chairman, was for the government to focus on diversifying the economy and looking in the direction of agriculture and mining.
According to the communique read by Yari, the governors supported the Nigerian Communications Commission over the N2.1trillion fine it imposed on MTN recently and they are of the view that the fine must be paid in full.
Their support for the NCC followed the briefing the governors received from the Acting Executive Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NCC, Professor Umar Dambata.
The forum also received a presentation from the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) to help in boosting mechanised agriculture and improving small and medium businesses especially in the rural communities.
“We resolved that we must look at ways to enhance revenue generation and at the same time look at ways to cut our overhead costs most especially the political office holders’ salaries and other overhead expenses.
“The situation is no longer the same when we were asked to pay N18,000 minimum wage, when oil price was $126 (per barrel) and continued paying N18,000 minimum wage when the oil is $41 and the source of government expenditure is from oil, and we have not seen prospects in the oil industry in the near future.
“We will diversify our economy in the area of agriculture and mining. But at the same time, we should understand our situation where some of us (states) today are taking N100million take home (monthly allocation) and then have salaries in particular of over N2billion to pay.
“We therefore agreed here to take this suggestion to NEC in our meeting tomorrow (Thursday) so that we can be able to find ways to tackle this problem.
“And we are looking at coming together to discussing with Mr. President and his team, with governors, technocrats and experts in the economy to see how we can tackle our troubled situation. We are working harder to deal with it.
“Hence the MTN has accepted that they committed the offense and has apologised, and they are looking for leniency, we the governors forum decided to support the NCC to abide by the laws of the land and the laws of our land do not not give leniency to deliberate offense to our nation,” the communique read.
Meanwhile, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has promised his administration will not retrench workers in its employ as a result of the current cash crunch facing the state.
The governor, who said this in Ise-Ekiti, added that the administration would instead discuss with workers to find means of paying their salaries, according to a statement by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi.
The governor, who started a sensitisation tour of local governments on the financial situation of the state, said sacking workers was not the solution to the problem.
Fayose, who also visited Emure Local Government, said allocations to both state and local governments had gone down drastically, and cited the case of what the 16 local governments had received in the last few months.
“A comparative analysis of the allocations to local governments in Ekiti between January to October 2014 and the same period this year would clearly explain what I am talking about.
“During that period in 2014, the local governments got over N22 billion, while they were given N15 billion for the same period this year. A shortfall of over N5 billion.
“What even came in last month was terrible. We therefore decided to pay primary school teachers in September and paid local government workers in October.
“Now, the issue is should we now skip a month and pay all workers at once or keep rotating the payment of salaries among different categories of workers? You are the ones to decide,” the governor said.
In his contributions, the Emure Local Government Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Mr Sunday Adu, said whatever their leaders at state level arrived at was acceptable to them.
He commended the governor for his efforts at encouraging teachers and giving their welfare serious priority.
Another contributor, Mr Ajayi Nathaniel, said the governor should look into the issue of those deployed to the classroom from local government by the Fayemi administration.
He said the differentials in their salaries were yet to be addressed.
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The governor promised a quick resolution of the matter, adding that those screening them should complete that before the end of the month.
