Governors on Monday described as unpatriotic the insistence of the Nigeria Labour Congress that N30,000 was the least it would accept as the national minimum wage. They added that it was an attempt to hold President Muhammadu Buhari and the nation to ransom.

The governors, however, said they would have loved to pay the N30,000 minimum wage being demanded by workers, but regretted that paucity of funds would not allow them to do so.


They also said that they were not under any obligation to open their books to the NLC, but had been doing so to show transparency in the running of affairs of their states.

The governors, under the aegis of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, made their position known in a statement they issued through the Head, Media and Public Affairs, Mr Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, in Abuja.


They said that the claim by the NLC, through an interview granted The PUNCH by its Secretary General, Mr Peter Eson, that governors were merely refusing to pay the N30.000 national minimum wage, was not true.

Bello-Barkindo described Eson’s assertion as “not only mischievous, but misleading and made in bad faith.”

He said, “Governors have collectively made it abundantly clear that they would have been happy to pay workers the N30,000 but times are hard and because of financial constraints and other limitations, many states cannot afford it, for now.

“The NGF had offered workers an increment N22.500 from the current N18,000 after the submission of the report of the tripartite committee set up by the President and headed by a retired Head of Service, Ms Amma Pepple, on October 6, last year.

“The N22.500 was arrived at, after extensive deliberations among all 36 governors, outlining their financial capacities and liquidity, considering the economic situation of the country and the states’ other obligations to the majority of the people of their various domains.


“Governors also emphasized that N22.500 is a ‘baseline threshold,’ meaning that any governor who can pay more than N22.500 is therefore free to go ahead and do so.

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“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 of Zamfara State, in company of governors Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi attended a closed -door meeting with the President where the financial standing of six states, one each from all the geopolitical zones in the country, were shown to the President, after which, on Mr President’s request, all the states forwarded their books, their revenues, both IGR 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.

“To put the records straight, governors are not under any obligation, by law, to show their books to the NLC.”

Bello-Barkindo said that the governors had, in their pursuit of the understanding of the union, done so, not once, but several times over, with a view to letting the NLC know that what they were asking for was neither realistic nor sustainable.

“Yet, the NLC remains adamant that its will must be done, or the heavens will fall,” he added.

He said that President Buhari had at his last meeting with governors on December 15, 2018 admonished them (governors) to expect harsher economic tides in the New Year.

This, he said, further validated the governors’ fears that even those states that had hitherto looked comfortable financially, might in the course of the New Year falter.

He said since that last meeting between the governors and Mr President, the economists at the NGF secretariat had 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 could help the President in ameliorating the situation.

Already, he said revenue to states had dropped drastically while demands by competing needs kept rising astronomically.

For example, he said that 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 the report in October 2018.

He added that governors were 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 five per cent of the nation’s population.

“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,” he said.

He appealed to the labour unions not to destroy what he called 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.”

Governors not sincere, says NLC

But the General Secretary of the NLC, Peter Ozo-Eson, told one of our correspondents that the NGF was not sincere in its claim. He stressed that the NGF had resorted to employing diversionary tactic because at no time did the governors open their books to the NLC or the tripartite committee.

He said, “The governors should either decide to exhibit the power given to them or give up and resign if they are not ready to rule. We are not interested in this back and forth game. Our position is that this has been concluded and what the Federal Government needs to do is to send the bill to the National Assembly and we will engage each state government on its implementation. The talk of opening their books to us at this stage is diversionary. Nobody opened his book to anybody, nobody did.”

On the NGF claim that revenue to states dropped from N800bn when the tripartite committee was appointed in November 2017 to between N500bn and N600bn by the time Pepple submitted the report in October 2018, the NLC spokesman said the committee at no time during the negotiation engaged the governors’ representatives in state-by-state allocations.
MINIMUM WAGES


FEATURED
2019 budget: Buhari to spend N1bn on travels, N98m on food
Published
January 1, 2019
Olusola Fabiyi, John Ameh and Tobi Aworinde, Abuja

The Federal Government budgeted N1,001,318,171 for President Muhammadu Buhari’s local and international travels in the proposed 2019 budget.

The budget proposes N250,021,595 for the President’s local trips and N751,296,576 for him to travel internationally.

Meanwhile, N83,974,710 was budgeted for Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo’s local travel, while N217,060,883 was proposed for his international trips.

Under foodstuff/catering materials supplies, N98,306,492 was budgeted for the President and N50,888,218 for the Vice-President.

The Federal Government also proposed N416,668,229 for the construction of the presidential wing of the State House Medical Centre out of the Presidency’s total estimate of N49, 307,859,794 in the 2019 budget proposal.

Aside from this, N823,441,666 was proposed for the State House Medical Centre, including drugs and medical supplies (N208,350,424).

Meanwhile, the State House also budgeted N36, 787,354 for drugs and medical supplies, and N51,821,160 for medical expenses.

In the 2018 budget, the Presidency had proposed N1,030,458,453 for the State House clinic after the President’s wife, Mrs Aisha Buhari, criticised the medical centre for not having an “ordinary syringe.”

In the 2017 budget, N3.2bn had also been allocated for the upgrade of the state clinic, including “the completion of ongoing work as well as procurement of drugs and other medical equipment.”

The President and his deputy are also to spend over N7.5bn this year on “operations” and maintenance of office buildings, the breakdown of the 2019 budget showed.

The breakdown,on Monday night, indicated that the entire State House was allocated N49.3bn for general services, covering capital, recurrent and overhead costs.

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However, the President’s office was given a dedicated vote of N10bn for the running of his office, out of which N7.5bn went for operations.

To maintain presidential office buildings will cost N4.7bn this year.

Similarly, the President’s direct overhead cost is N1.3bn, while his capital spending will consume another N416.6m, bringing the total figure for “operations” alone to N1.7bn.

On his part, Osinbajo is to spend N591.8m on operations.

Out of the figure, N448.6m goes into overhead costs, while the balance of N143.2m will be spent on capital provisions under operations.

A further breakdown of the presidential budget showed that the Presidency would buy vehicles worth N607.1m this year.

Aside from the N4.7bn budgeted for the maintenance of office buildings, the Presidential residential buildings will be rehabilitated with another N140.4m.

The item titled ‘Refreshments/Meals’ has an allocation of N135.6m and an additional N25.6m, meaning a total N161.2m.

Similarly, a provision of N65.4m was made for the animals in the State House for their “conservation.”

What do you think Nairalanders?

N30k unpatriotic.

These governors should fear God now

helinues:
N30k unpatriotic.

These governors should fear God now

workers should also fear God.
what effort have they made to improve the igr of states? they know how embattled some states are with the 18k minimum wage now they want to go straight to 30k even if governors pay this amount, how long do you think they can continue?
we should look up to effective delivery of the current fee b4 moving ahead..

sum governors nid year slap to remove 2018 tthinking from their memory

jumper524:
workers should also fear God.
what effort have they made to improve the igr of states? they know how embattled some states are with the 18k minimum wage now they want to go straight to 30k even if governors pay this amount, how long do you think they can continue?
we should look up to effective delivery of the current fee b4 moving ahead..

Buh we can continue paying the likes of Tinubu even after he isn't on govt payroll anymore abi??

The countries that pay above 30k, do they have 10 heads??

obonujoker:


Buh we can continue paying the likes of Tinubu even after he isn't on govt payroll anymore abi??

The countries that pay above 30k, do they have 10 heads??

is like we like complaining in this country..
when are we going to face the reality of things??