Govt. Should be blamed for unpaid salaries

e 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.
Adeyemi said that workers should not be made
to bear the brunt of the mismanagement of the
economy as they were not part of those who
looted the treasury.