The Nigerian governors say their states are broke, with the majorityinsisting they can no longer afford to pay the minimum wage of N18,000 to the workers. Obule Ocheyenor, the Naij.com columnist, says the government should, among other things, look at how much one Nigerian lawmaker costs the treasury and be inspired to introduce certain changes.
State governors in Nigeria who have been over-pampered by the federal government to the extent that they now rely solely on monthly allocation of funds from the Federation Account to run their states do not seem to know the enormity of the trouble they are courting by suggesting a downward review of the national minimum wage of N18,000 because they can no longer pay it.
Nigerian civil servants were alarmed when they heard the state governors, who had just risen from a meeting in Abuja early last week, say that the state treasuries could no longer sustain the N18,000 minimum wage due to dwindling oil revenue that has equally resulted in a sharp drop in the federal allocations to the states.
The Nigeria Labour Congress last Friday swiftly responded with a threat that workers in the country would resist any attempt by government to review downwards the minimum wage. The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, announced at a workers’ rally in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, that the leadership of the congress would massively mobilise workers for industrial action should the need arise. This is a threat that should not be taken lightly.
What has the ridiculously meagre minimum wage got to do with the comatose economy the state governors are using as an alibi not to pay the salaries of civil servants in their states? Rather than slash the minimum wage and incur the wrath of workers, state governors should think outside the box by coming up with robust ideas that could positively turn around the financial fortunes of their states.
There is no state in Nigeria that is not endowed with vast natural resources. These resources are waiting to be tapped but state governors prefer they easy way out; that is, to go cap in hand to Abuja every month to collect federal allocation.
The cost of governance is too high in this country. Reducing it will go a long way in freeing a lot of funds for other purposes. A situation where recurrent expenditure is higher than capital expenditure has led to the collapse of infrastructure nationwide. The bulk of revenue generated by the government is used to pay salaries while other sectors of the economy are neglected.
Besides, there are so many sources of wasteful spending that should be plugged by the governors, ministers and top government officials. Governors receive huge security votes they hardly account for or put to good use. If properly utilized, we wouldn’t be facing the present serious security challenges across the country. Governors have a large fleet of official expensive cars they don’t need. Governors use state resources to buy private jets. They also have a retinue of idle aides paid from the lean resources of the states.
The minimum wage is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the jumbo pay our lawmakers are earning. The national minimum wage, one of the lowest in the world, is the amount some public office-holders feed their dogs and other domestic pets in a day!
In this period of economic recession, belt-tightening should not be limited to ordinary Nigerians alone. State governors should cut down on their profligate lifestyle and use the money they save to pay the minimum wage, which, ironically, is due for upward review, according to labour leaders.
The governors should get their priorities right and stop running from pillar to post in order to raise the revenue profiles of their states. They should devise better ways of improving their internally generated revenue.
The governors cannot continue to rely on bailouts or loans to pay workers’ salaries. Industrialisation and agriculture are key to the diversification of the Nigerian economy. Exploration of solid minerals could revive the dead economies of states. Tourism alone could also substantially turn around the economies of some states. These are sustainable income generating avenues for states if properly and vigorously harnessed.
The neglect of agriculture and over-reliance on oil by the federal and state governments over the years brought the nation’s economy to this sorry state where states can no longer perform their basic function such as paying workers’ monthly wages.
Nigerians did not bargain for this hardship when they embraced the change mantra of the APC in this year’s general elections. Although the tattered economy was inherited from the profligate and pervasively corrupt administration of former president, Goodluck Jonathan, the Muhammadu Buhari administration should come up with a better way to revive the economy quickly.
The plan by state governors to slash the minimum wage is not the solution to the economic quagmire in which states have found themselves. Resorting to this fire brigade approach would only compound the woes of the workers and cause serious crisis for this government.
Mr Ocheyenor wrote from Lagos.
The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of Naij.com.
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