Blame governors for failure to pay state salaries – FG

Blame governors for failure to pay state salaries – FG

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.