State governors under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum have said that they can no longer pay the N18,000 minimum wage.

According to them, the minimum wage was imposed on them when oil sold for $126 as against the present price of $41 per barrel.

This was one of the outcomes of the forum’s meeting held on Wednesday evening inside the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The meeting ended in the early hours of Thursday.

The NGF Chairman, Abdul’aziz Yari of Zamfara State, said the way out of the situation was the diversification of the economy with attention to agriculture and mining.

The governor said, “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, more especially the political office holders’ salaries and other overhead expenses.

“The situation is no longer the same compared to 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 oil, and we have not seen prospects in the oil industry in the near future.”

Supporting the NGF position, Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State told journalists that there was no way the country could continue with a situation where expenditure was more than income.

“We are faced with a situation where we either have to reduce cost through salary reduction or downsize. All these we don’t want to do but prefer to have a roundtable with the President, ministers and economists to look for means of getting out of this problem,” he said.

Yari added, “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 N100m home (monthly allocation) and we have salaries of over N2bn to pay.

“We, therefore, agreed here to take this suggestion to NEC in our meeting on Thursday so that we can be able to find ways to tackle this problem.

“And we are looking at coming together to discuss 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.”

The governors also called on the Federal Government to ensure that MTN Nigeria paid in full the N1.04tn fine imposed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission.

The NCC had imposed the fine on the firm for not deactivating unregistered Subscriber Identification Module cards of subscribers.

There have been moves by the firm to have the fine either reduced or the payment staggered by the telecoms industry regulator. The Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, is handling the matter on behalf of the Presidency.

But the governors, in a communique signed by Yari, commended the NCC for imposing the fine.

The decision was taken after members the forum received a comprehensive brief on the development from the NCC acting Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta.

Yari said, “The forum also commended the NCC for its strict compliance and enforcement of the law with regards to the fine issued to MTN and advised the Federal Government to ensure prompt and full payment.

“Hence, MTN has accepted that it committed the offence and has apologised, and is looking for leniency; we in the governors’ forum decided to support the NCC to abide by the laws of the land; and the laws of our land do not give leniency to a deliberate offence to our nation.”

The forum also promised to collaborate with the commission in order to assist in boosting the telecommunications industry.

The governors also agreed to meet with stakeholders to articulate a robust strategy that would address the deplorable state of the nation’s economy.
http://punchng.com/we-can-no-longer-pay-n18000-minimum-wage-governors/

Seriously

Yet their commissioners and reps are earning humongous salaries and bonuses. Not fair!

Madness...

Nigerians clamoured for cutting governor excesses, we clamoured for cutting our legislators huge and outrageous benefits, we expected the immediate reduction in commissioners, and special advisers.

All this wasteful and avoidable expenses were ignored and this professional looters are forming in the mouth.

The 18,000 Naira paid to a man with one wife and four children is not even enough to cover his transportation cost, how will this family survive and we are clamouring for a crime free society?

They should start reducing their salaries / allowances to close to N18 K before thinking of touching the poor workers meager unpaid salaries. We are outrightly wicked to ourselves, that's why oyibo no get respect for us. If oyibo ruler no fit keep up with protection of citizens, they normally resign out of frustration - they feel like a father that has failed his children. In this country, these fools have a field day.

This news made fp yesterday na. Why today again?

Oh, i remember,

"end time mods"
- lasisi69 Nov. 2015

BUHARI THIS IS NOT THE CHANGE WE VOTED YOU IN FOR

BUHARIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Ok

okoooo

Sometimes I wonder how nigeria got to dis place(pitiable state).
U voted for change, oya dis is it.



Nigeria is gradually becoming a failed state
End time party

Did I expect something different from them? No. It's not as if they can't really afford to pay workers, it only means that there will be very little money left for those kleptomaniac Governors to steal after paying workers salary. When the money was coming in abundance and the then minister of finance was advising them to save in the excess crude account for the raining days, they outrightly rejected that advice and pressurized the President to share the money so "that they can use it to execute capital projects " in their respective States. The rest is history, where are the so called capital projects? They've embezzled the money and now they want to cut workers salary. Any Governor that touches workers salary will attract the wrath of God on himself and his households!

Nigeria is about to collapse

Just 18k

Okay but you f00ls have money to pay yourself and your numerous aides coupled with girlfriends.
End time governors!

Useless people... what can 18,000 do for someone in this present economic situation and the infidels want to reduce it..why don't they cut their salaries ,allowances and other benefits of their aides, commissioners..some of this useless Governors have special advisers for very irrelevant things and the advisers also have aides. but they not doing anything about them, their major concern is to make the average and poor Nigerians more poor...May God help this country......

Even the 18k hasn't been paid and now you want to reduce it. I smell a strike action.

End-time Decision

In obahiagbons voice dis guys ar too mephistopheleanic in nature

h

Cut the salary of all political office holders first.

I pity Nigerian, politicians and their dirty cheap scam. PDP changing wears to the new designer APC

Why is it only the low class that suffer anytime there is a crunch?
Let the governors stop paying maximum wage, not the minimum wage biko.

No idiot should tamper with my salary, their pain is that they are no billions to loot any longer. Bad market.

Then what will the be using for ?

New Time thread!

Hmmnnnmmmmmmnn

Den u guys u shld b ready to slash ur salaries,allowance by Half
18K per month,and u can't pay

repeated news mod

We are watching

These thieves can't pay minimum wage


Nigeria in trouble