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.

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