The Federal Government on
Wednesday absolved itself of
blame in the inability of some state
governments to pay their workers’
salaries.
It said the governors of such states
should be blamed for the
development in their states
because they were told through
the Federation Accounts Allocation
Committee to make the issue of
wage a priority.
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, said this in a
statement by her Special Adviser on
Communications, Paul
Nwabuikwu.
The statement was necessitated by
the All Progressives Congress
governors’ claim that the negative
manner the outgoing Goodluck
Jonathan administration was
running the economy had made it
difficult for them to pay salaries
regularly.
But Okonjo-Iweala said that despite
the 50 per cent drop in gross
federally collectible revenue, the
Federal Government had made the
issue of workers’ salaries a top
priority in order to ensure that the
“people do not feel the negative
impact of the revenue drop on the
economy.”
For instance, the minister said that
contrary to the “misinformation
being put forward by certain
governors to the effect that federal
workers are being owed, staff
salaries at the Federal level are up-
to-date.”
She said in the five paragraph
statement that the states, being
one of the three tiers of
government that receive monthly
allocations from the Federation
Account, should be blamed for their
predicament.
The statement read, “This is to
clarify the misinformation put
forward by certain governors to the
effect that Federal workers are
being owed salaries.
“This is incorrect. Staff salaries at
the Federal level are up-to-date;
workers have received their April
salaries.
“Regarding difficulties in salary
payments, certain governors are
trying to blame the Federal
Government for their predicament.
This is wrong. They had been told
through the FAAC to prioritise
salaries but they chose not to do so,
hence the backlog that some states
are experiencing.
“The 50 per cent drop in revenues
simply means that salaries should
be prioritised. The Federal
Government should not be blamed
for avoidable mistakes made at the
state level.”
The APC governors had during a
meeting with the President-elect,
Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja on
Tuesday, expressed frustrations
about their inability to pay
workers’ salaries.
They therefore appealed to Buhari
to consider a bailout plan for all the
36 state governments after his
inauguration on May 29.
They said, “One of the issues that
became of concern to all of us is the
state of the Nigerian economy
which is really in a bad shape.
“We have come to notify the
incoming president of the
challenges ahead of him. As it
stands today, most states of the
federation have not been able to
pay salaries and even the Federal
Government has not paid April
salaries and that is very worrisome,
by May and June, that (salaries) will
be in cumulative of three months.
“We wonder with the huge
expectation of Nigerians and
people who have voted us into
power, we are hoping that the
president-elect will do everything
humanly possible to bring about a
bailout not only for the states but
the Federal Government, at least
for people to get their salaries and
turn around the economy.”
The Nigeria Labour Congress had on
April 28, insisted that state
governors must pay outstanding
salaries before the May 29
handover date.
The factional Deputy President of
the NLC, Peters Adeyemi, said at
the ninth National Delegates
conference of the Medical and
Health Workers Union of Nigeria in
Abuja, that workers had
commenced the campaign to
prevail on the governors to pay
outstanding salaries before May
29.
The National Administrative Council
of the NLC had on March 19, 2015 set
up a committee to compel state
governments to pay over eight
months salary arrears owed
workers.
The congress had on December 31,
2014 said that 11 states owed
workers salaries.
Adeyemi said that workers should
not be made to bear the brunt of
the mismanagement of the
economy as they were not part of
those who looted the treasury.
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
