The Nigeria Governors’ Forum said that governors would have loved to pay workers N30,000 as national minimum wage but for the hard times.
Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, Head, Media and Public Affairs, NGF, said this on Monday in Abuja.
Bello-Barkindo said that due to financial constraints and other limitations, many states could not afford it for now.
He said that the clarification was important, following insinuations by the Nigeria Labor Congress through an interview granted by its Secretary General, Peter Eson.
Bello-Barkindo said that the insinuation by Eson in the interview that governors were refusing to pay the N30,000 national minimum wage as demanded was misleading.
He noted that the governors had offered workers a token increment of N22,500 from the current N18,000, after the submission of the report of the Tripartite Committee on October 6.
He also.said that the N22,500 was arrived at after extensive deliberations among all 36 state governors.
He said the governors also arrived at the decision after outlining their financial capacities and liquidity, considering the national economic situation and states’ other obligations.
“Governors also emphasised that N22,500 is a baseline threshold, meaning that any governor who can pay more than N22,500 is free to go ahead and do so,” Bello-Barkindo added.
He said that the governors had met President Muhammadu Buhari twice on the matter and presented their books to buttress their point.
He disclosed that, the governors, in their first batch meeting, presented the financial standing of six states, which each governor from the six geo-political zones showed to the President at his request.
“All the states forwarded their books, their revenues, both internally generated and their earnings from the Federation Account along with their other sources of revenue for examination.
“The President appeared satisfied with the governors’ position, thus the decision to set up a new committee.’’
Bello-Barkindo added that there had never been a time in the country when states had embarked on a more aggressive revenue drive than they currently do.
He also said that though the governors were not under any obligation by law to show their books to the NLC, they had, at several times, done so in their pursuit of the understanding of the union.
Bello-Barkindo said that was done with a view to letting NLC know that what it was asking for was neither realistic nor sustainable, noting that NLC has remained adamant.
The spokesman said that since the last meeting, mid December, between the governors and the President, economists of the NGF had been working closely with the relevant departments in all the states of the federation.
He said that this was also in addition to looking into other ways of collating financial standing of states.
“Already, revenues to states have dropped drastically, while demands by competing needs keep rising astronomically.
“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 its report in October 2018.
“Moreover, state governors are making concerted efforts to improve on education, health and infrastructure and therefore would not dedicate their states’ entire resources to workers’ salaries alone.”
He advised NLC not to “destroy” existing cordial relationship between the workers and their governors, “especially in states where governors are stepping up efforts to improve on the welfare of their workers.”
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