We Can’t Pay Salaries, Nigerian Governors Cry Out

Nigerian Governors under the aegis of Nigerian Governors’ Forum, has decried that they are not able to pay salaries owing to the rising decline of the nation’s revenue.

Speaking at the Governors’ Forum meeting, Chairman of the NGF and Zamfara State Governor Abdul’aziz Yari said that the forum meddled on the issue of the economy as they agreed to find a way of bringing up the Internally Generated Revenues of their respective as well as bringing down the overhead cost of their States.

Speaking Yari said; “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 per barrel and the source of government expenditure is from oil, and we have not seen prospects in the oil industry in the near future,” he said. “We are coming together in a roundtable with President Buhammadu Buhari and his team of ministers, technocrats, economic experts to see how we can tackle our situation.”

Yari said the governors had also resolved to hold a roundtable with all stakeholders to articulate a robust strategy to tackle the deplorable economic situation in the country.

Also Oyo Governor, Ajimobi said; “We are faced with a situation where we either have to reduce cost through salary reduction or downsize,” he said. “All these we don’t want to do but prefer to have a roundtable with the president, ministers, economists to look for means of getting out of this problem.”

Delta Governor Ifeanyi Okowa said “I believe that [this] is the same situation with the federal government,” he said. He said there was a need to look into the salaries of political office holders and other salaries.

“It is not a situation of being able to run government now. Most states are not able to pay salaries not to talk of capital projects. “If we cannot fund capital development, then the rest of Nigerians are just shut out of government.

“Those of us in government, both politicians and civil servants, are possibly not more than five per cent of the entire population of Nigeria. What will happen to the other 95 per cent? What happens to infrastructure? Can we talk about industry without infrastructure?”