Unpaid Salaries: Governors meet to brainstorm on the way out for affected states

                                                    

ABUJA —       Troubled as a result of the precarious financial situation of 18 out of the 36 states of the federation, the governors are meeting today in Abuja to propose a bail out scheme for the affected states.

                                                  

The governors are to brainstorm on possible solution to the several months of unpaid salaries in the technically bankrupt states among other issues, according to a statement issued yesterday by Director-General of the Governors’ Forum, Mr. Asishana Okauru

The governors are said to be worried that if the situation in the affected states is allowed to linger, it may portend danger for the nation’s nascent democracy.

The governors under the aegis of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, will examine issues relating to the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, the Excess Crude Accounts ( ECA) and Revenue Enhancement Scheme as it affects state revenue flow for states, according to items listed on the agenda of today’s meeting.

The meeting will be presided over by NGF chairman and governor of Zamfara State, Abdullaziz Yari.

                                                  

Invited Governors

Speaking to reporters in Abuja, Okauru disclosed that all the governors, including Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo, Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa, Emmanuel Udom of Akwa Ibom, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta, Senator Benedict Ayade of Cross River, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, Rauf Aregbesola of Osun, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano; Kashim Shettima of Borno and Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, were invited to the meeting.

The situation in some of the affected state are as analysed below:

Oyo

Workers in Oyo State whose strength has been put at over 30,000 have been lamenting their unpaid three-month salary arrears. As at last month, the Abiola Ajimobi led-administration owed some of them three months while others, especially those in the state owned tertiary institutions are claiming that they only received salary in January this year. Last month,  workers in the state embarked on warning strike for about three weeks. Before the strike was suspended, the state branch of Nigeria Labour Congress led by Mr. Waheed Olojede and the state government signed a Memorandum of Understanding stating how the backlog of salary arrears would be paid.

The Head of Service, Mr. Soji Eniade explained that instead of the monthly allocation of N5.2 billion from the federation account, it has come down to N2.6 billion. This, he said was largely responsible for the paucity of funds in the state.

Mr. Waheed Olojede agreed with the Head of Service that the shortfall in the state’s revenue was due to the cut in the monthly allocation from the federation account. He said knowing the incapability of the state government in the area of finance; the labour union was diplomatic in resolving the issue with the government.

According to him, before the union came in, the government could not pay the salaries of workers at all and the union had to advise the government on how to pay the suffering workers.

“As at that time, about 20,000 workers in the state were yet to be paid their salaries and when we came in, the government agreed to pay January salary.

“Later, we made them to pay February. What remains now are deductions for the month of February and the government will pay that any moment from now”, he said.

Olojede further explained that the government would pay the March salary any moment from now and it will then owe April and May. He said as at the moment he was speaking with Vanguard, he could not say the exact number of workers in the state.

Internally Generated Revenue

However,  the government has made remarkable progress in its drive to increase Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.

The state’s IGR was N10.4 billion in 2014, N14.5 billion in 2012, N15.25 billion in 2013 and N16.3 billion in 2014.

All efforts to get the government’s reaction to the story were futile because former media aides and former commissioners were not ready to speak on the issue. The state government is not in a hurry to make any appointment now.

Ebonyi

In Ebonyi, the government has raised alarm over the debt profile of the state which is estimated at over N50 billion incurred by the administration of Governor Martin Elechi.

During an interview, the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Prof Ben Odo stated that the debt profile included salaries owed workers and unpaid certificates generated by contractors handling projects across the state. According to him, the state government had held series of meetings with various strata of Ebonyi society, including organised labour in order to chart a new course for the payment of workers salaries and reduction of the state’s debt burden.

He expressed commitment of the present administration in the state toward improving the welfare of workers.

“We have invited the Joint Labour Team for an interaction where we presented the reality on ground regarding the huge debt profile in the state. The welfare of workers is prime to this administration and we are committed to it against all odds.

“During the interaction we told Labour to assist us in ensuring that there is a boost in our Internally Generated Revenue, IGR. We have told Labour to help us block the leakages that have kept our IGR very low in the state as we are deeply committed to the payment of workers.

“There are two categories of debts profile that make the N50 billion and it has to do with workers salaries and non-payment of contractors. There is no money in the state presently as we are using personal resources to run the government; we presented this reality to Labour and others.”

Meanwhile, Governors on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, have pleaded for the intervention of the Federal Government to enable them pay salaries workers and meet other necessary demands.

Rising from a meeting that lasted for over five hours, the chairman of the Governors Forum and Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorcha, said the state of the economy called for urgent attention.

He said: “We the governors of the progressive party met today to review the state of the economy. We also met to review the issues as it affect our great party.

“First, on the economy of the nation, we are concerned and worried by the dwindling revenue of the states which today has affected negatively the lives of our people.

“It has become so serious and urgent actions must be taken for a bailout for the states. States are not getting better either. We sat down to review what steps could be taken. We are calling for overhaul of the system to block all the leakages in our economy.

“We have realised that what we are going through today is as a result of the poor management of our economy in the recent time. The APC government met a near empty treasury. This has become very worrisome, not just for us, but for the entire nation.

“We have some natural challenges in the country because of the drop in oil price and the issue of oil theft. There are other issues like the crude swap. We have the gas revenues which has never reflected before. We have the mismanagement of oil subsidy. Few year ago, we paid about N200 nillion. Today, it is about N1.4 trillion. We are worried.

                                                     

Plateau

In Plateau State, Mr Emmanuel Nanle, Director of Press & Public Affairs said: “The government of Simon Lalong inherited the situation and what the Transition Committee is doing and what government is trying to do, is to understand basically the reason for non-payment of salaries.

“Basically, one couldn’t really guess what would have been the reason. The governor has also mentioned clearly that he feels that if the previous government did not dip their hands in the face of dwindling economic resources and fall in revenue profile into wide-spread government projects that had not been prioritized with cost benefit analysis, we wouldn’t have found ourselves in this situation.

Right now, we found ourselves in this situation wherein you have debt servicing taking a large chunk of the money and leaving recurrent expenditure hanging and as such salaries could not be paid.

“Right now we need to streamline our priorities, identify the projects that are of necessity that must be finished and then once those projects are tidied up and staggered alongside the resources that are available at hand to be able to address the myriads of other problems being for attention.”

On how soon the arrears of salaries will be liquidated he said: “I am sure you are in tune. That is why Labour called off the strike in the last few days. The reason for the calling off of the strike is that they arrived at a common agreement with government to the effect that salaries will be paid concurrently with one month arrears.

“That has been worked out and signed and everyone in Plateau state is expectant, full of hopes and waiting to see that they receive one month arrears.

“Those who have not received November, 2014 salary will receive double, those who received will get only one month until everyone is brought at par then they will receive December and they will receive the subsisting current one. In a period of six months, all arrears would have been paid.”

Katsina

The newly inaugurated administration of Governor Aminu Bello Masari may not be able to pay workers salaries because it inherited an empty treasury.

 The governor’s spokesman, Labaran Abdul  in an interview stated  that apart from the huge debt incurred by the immediate past administration, Shema emptied the treasury. Abdul said although the immediate past government did not owe worker salaries, the PDP led government of the former regime of Governor Shema left an empty treasury.

“So, I think we may be finding it difficult to pay salaries as at when due because as I talk to you the accounts of the state government have been frozen. Abdul said the governor in his determined effort has vowed to ensure that sanity was brought to bear in the governance of Katsina State as business would no longer be as usual.

Abia

In Abia State, there is no Information Commissioner yet. Also,  no official was willing to dabble into discussing the issue of why workers were not paid, perhaps for fear of political persecution, bearing in mind how the present governor emerged.

However, state chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Uchenna Obigwe said that Labour expected the new government to open up on the issue so that Labour can ask questions and follow up.

Obigwe said 70% of the state’s workforce of about 20,000 is still being owed salary arrears. The figure, according to him, constitute mainly teachers, local government workers, pensioners, parastatals’ staff, including tertiary institutions.

Labour in the state, he said, has already compiled the debt profile and sent to its headquarters. However, the aggrieved workers who are being owed blamed their woes on the huge amount of money spent in the last elections by the previous government. Others blamed it on the “wasteful lifestyle of past government officials” and their insensitivity to workers.

For now, it is not yet known how the new government of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu intends to offset the salary arrears as he has not opened up on this sore issue. But a source close to him, disclosed that he has been talking to banks to raise money to offset the arrears.

Abia received between N4 and N5 billion from the federation account before national allocations nosedived and now it gets about N2 billion while it has a wage bill of over N1.5 billion, and an IGR of about N500 million.

Benue

In Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom ,  a few days ago  disclosed that the state is owing its workforce backlog of salaries amounting to over N12 billion. The governor stated that the accumulated five months salary arrears were inherited from the immediate past Gabriel Suswam-led administration.

Ortom said his administration had already commenced moves to clear the backlog, promising that in the interim, his government would pay one month of the arrears across board, while efforts would be intensified to clear the remainder.

The governor also disclosed that the former administration in May took an overdraft from its receiving bank to the tune of N1.9billion. He also attributed the development to the dwindling allocation to states from the federation account.

He said: “When we received our allocation for that month which was just N1.6 billion it was withheld by the bank, leaving us with nothing but an outstanding N300million to be paid.”

Contacted, Media Adviser to the Governor, Mr. Tahav Agezua said the former administration should be in a better position to explain why salaries were not paid.

Agezua added further that “on our part, we are making efforts to pay, but we are starting payments from June and thereafter intensify efforts to clear the backlog.”

Cross River

It will be recalled that on May 26, 2015, two days to the end of Senator Imoke’s administration, workers in Cross River state went on strike occasioned by the non-payment of their April salaries which were outstanding at the time.

The workers were afraid that Senator Imoke who had earlier promised to offset all salaries owed the workers during his final May Day address to the workers during the May Day celebration would leave office without fulfilling his promise and the strike was to pre-empt any such move.

Senator Imoke however prevailed on the workers to call off the strike and to keep to his word, while he was handing over to Senator Ben Ayade, the state civil servants apart from their counterparts on the payroll of the Local Government Service Commission received alerts from their banks notifying them of the payment of their April salaries.

Also few days after Senator Ayade assumed the mantle of leadership, he ordered payment of May salaries to the workers, leaving out primary school teachers, medical and health workers and others on the payroll of local governments. These categories of workers were in the months of January, February and March paid half of their salaries. However during the negotiation with Imoke, their leaders asked that instead of the piecemeal payment, the workers were ready to wait till the month of June for the complete salaries for the months of April and May.

State Accountant-General, Mr Henry Ojugwu said  the state has one of the least allocations among states in the South-South occasioned by the loss of its seventy six oil wells to neigbouring Akwa Ibom State but has been doing its best to pay workers their salaries.

He said the state’s monthly allocation from the federation account oscillates between N2-2.5 billion Naira, and that worker’s and political office holders salaries take bulk of the allocation .

“We spend about N1.7 billion on salaries alone and we have quite a number of on-going projects under execution and as such we need to create a balance between the payment of salaries and project execution by sourcing for additional funds.”

Though he would not mention how the additional funds are sourced to run the state but internally generated revenue and loans account for a large chunk of the additional funds as the state makes about N1.3 billion naira every month. The state in 2012 generated N15.3 billion as internally-generated revenue, which funds have been very useful in helping to offset the cost of salary payments and other administrative needs.

The meeting of the 36 state Governors is coming on the heels of another factional group which was loyal to former governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State that was held on Tuesday, an indication that the crisis which rocked the Governors Forum during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure was set to continue.

The factional group fixed its first meeting for Tuesday with Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo state as leader. In a statement signed on Monday by the Coordinator of the Forum, Earl Osaro Onaiwu, the meeting is scheduled for 7.00 p.m. in Maitama, Abuja, just as it was the first post election meeting, adding, “top on the agenda are issues like post-election assessment of the party, the way-forward as well as the election of the chairman from amongst the thirteen members.”

The Tuesday meeting by the factional group came barely twenty- eight days after the meeting of the NGF was held in Abuja with former Governors Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom, who were at the centre of the crisis of the meeting in attendance, an indication that they have all buried the hatchet and prepared to work together as one body.

The governors, made up of the All Progressives Congress, APC and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP met last month at the Lagos/ Osun Hall of Transcorp Hilton, Abuja and it was the first of its kind since 2013 when they fell out. Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State was elected chairman of the forum and he took over from Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers.

Present at the said meeting were former governors Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers; Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger; Ramallan Yero of Kaduna; Saidu Dakingari of Kebbi; Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta; Isa Yuguda of Bauchi; Governors Adams Oshiomhole of Edo; Rauf Aregbesola of Osun; Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano; Kashim Shettima of Borno; Abiola Ajimobi; Emmanauel Udom of Akwa Ibom; Deputy governor of Kogi, Yomi Awoniyi; Deputy governor of Nasarawa State and Deputy governor of Imo State.

It will be recalled that since the former governor of Rivers State and Chairman, Nigeria Governor’s Forum, NGF, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi was re-elected chairman of the forum in May 2013 where he polled 19 votes to defeat governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State, the only governor who contested with him to score 16, all has not been well with the forum until what appeared to be a reconciliation meeting last month.

It will also be recalled that Amaechi who chaired one of the factions, was first elected Chairman of NGF in 2011 when he took over from former Kwara State governor and now President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki. The Nigeria Governors’ Forum which was established to among others, provide a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas, help strengthen and promote Nigeria’s federal system and promote understanding among governors and states, is the umbrella body of all the thirty-six state governors of the federation.