The 36 states governors have said that they can no longer pay the N18,000 minimum wage to workers owing to the poor state of the economy.
Rising from a crucial meeting that ended in the early hours of Thursday at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja under the umbrella of Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), the governors said that the dwindling prices of oil had drastically affected their states’ revenues.
Specifically, they said that the burden of the wage bill was lighter when oil sold at $126 per barrel as against the current $41 per barrel.
They therefore sought to have audience with President Muhammadu Buhari on the economy, resolving that the only way out of the quagmire was to diversify the economy to agriculture and mining.
Reading the communique of the meeting, the Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Zamfara State Abdulaziz Yari hinted that NGF also backed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over the N1.04 trillion sanction imposed on MTN.
According to him, the governors agreed that the fine must be paid in full.
He said that they received briefing from the Acting Executive Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NCC, Professor Umar Dambatta who explained the matter to them.
He 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 officeholders’ salaries and other overhead expenses.
“The situation is no longer the same 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 from oil, and we have not seen prospects in the oil industry in the near future.
“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 N100 million take home (monthly allocation) and then have salaries (alone) over N2 billion to pay.
“We therefore agreed here to take this suggestion to NEC in our meeting tomorrow (Thursday) so that we can find ways to tackle this problem.
“And we are looking at coming together to discuss it 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 hard to deal with it.
“Then MTN has accepted that they committed the offence and has apologised, and they are asking for leniency; we the governors forum decided to support NCC to abide by the laws of the land. And the laws of our land do not not give leniency to deliberate offence to our nation.”
Yari also revealed that the forum also received a presentation from the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) which will help in boosting mechanised agriculture and improve small and medium businesses especially in the rural communities.
-Vanguard
