No fewer than 22 of the 36 state governors in the country may forfeit 30 percent of their security votes from next year in order to augment their monthly federal allocations to clear the arrears of salaries they owe their workers.
This is one of the proposals the Federal Government plans to table before the governors at a meeting scheduled for next week to find options the affected states can adopt to address the salary crisis and avert a looming strike by the aggrieved workers.
Most state employees and their counterparts in five federal ministries and several MDAS celebrated the Christmas without their November and December salaries. With one day left for the year to end, there are no indications that the affected workers may be paid today.
Nigerian Pilot had on December 23 exclusively reported the inability of both the Federal Government and state governments to pay their workers’ salaries for November and December. The previous day, the Federal Ministry of Finance had assured that the salaries of the concerned workers would soon be paid and attributed the development to lapses in the salary payment.
But at the time of filing this report last night, the workers were yet to be paid their salaries.
Nigerian Pilot learnt that 27 and not 22 states are having difficulties in paying their workers’ monthly salaries, a trend they attributed to the drop in oil revenue and decline in federally collected revenue, which the three tiers of government gather in Abuja to share every month.
It was gathered yesterday that the Federal Government, through the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) would meet with the 22 governors in the first week of January to find a lasting solution to the salaries being owed by the states.
The meeting, which will be held in Abuja, will be chaired by Dr. Okonjo-Iweala.
A top official in the office of the AGF told Nigerian Pilot that the meeting would focus on how the state governors can cut cost for funds to be available for workers’ salaries.
The source said that the Federal Government also appealed to the governors to forfeit 30 percent of their security votes to shore up their revenue and pay their workers.
According to the source, the move is to put an end to the current salaries crises rocking over 22 states across the country.
It was learnt that the government is worried by the workers’ threat to embark on a nationwide strike to compel the states to pay their wages. The source said that the Federal Government is disturbed that any industrial action in the states could affect the smooth conduct of the 2015 general elections which begins on February 14.
Already, Secretary-General of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, Comrade Issa Aremu, has expressed concern over the non-payment of workers’ salaries by many state governors.
In an interaction with newsmen last week at the NUTGTWN meeting, Aremu described the development as a “wage theft, wage robbery and an economic crime.”
Aremu, who is the Vice President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, said for past three months, 22 governors had been delaying or refusing to pay salaries but paid the delegates during the just-concluded primary elections of their political parties.
“We see that delay in payment of salaries as wage theft, wage robbery. It is actually an economic crime because Nigerian labour law says ‘thou shall pay the worker as at when due’. In fact, by 22nd of every month you must have paid the workers fully. We never heard of any delegate being owed a single penny during the primary elections, but they cannot get money to pay the workers. Some of the delegates even bought new cars and properties after the primaries because the money they got in just a few days is more than what workers earn in many months. The governors should go to the place they got the money to pay delegates and settle the workers’ salaries,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ogun State government may have heeded the workers’ warning yesterday as it rushed to pay their December salary and 10 percent bonuses.
Addressing a press conference yesterday, the Secretary to Ogun State government, Mr. Taiwo Adeoluwa explained that the state government had earlier paid workers on levels 1- 10 before the Christmas period.
He explained that the state government had released the funds for the payment of other categories of workers, adding that banks would begin to release the money.
Reacting to an earlier broadcast by the Chairman of Joint Negotiating Council, Trade Union Side in the state, Comrade Abiodun Olakanmi, said the union leader was mischievous to have claimed that the state government has not paid salaries.
Olakanmi, who later joined the press conference, told journalists that he was not aware of the claim by the state government.
The conference later went sour when the SSG and union leaders traded words.
The SSG explained that it had been stressful on the side of the government trying to pay the salaries of its workers since November.
He explained that the political appointees had been on the receiving end as the government had chosen to pay them last.
The Commissioner for Finance, Kemi Adeosun, said that the state government had tried to improve its Internally-Generated Revenue, IGR to rely less on allocations from the Federation Account.
According to her, the global drop in oil price had affected the incomes of the companies paying taxes to the state and by extension its IGR.
Source: Nigerian Pilot
