Yesterday the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, said after a meeting with President Buhari at the State h...
Yesterday the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, said after a meeting with President Buhari at the State house Abuja, that Nigeria had now reached a point in the economic sector where it could no longer afford to pay the N18, 000 minimum wage.
Governors insisted that they are finding it difficult to keep up with the payment as government revenue is dwindling and the size of the workers is static. The NGF Chairman said the poor
state of infrastructure such as power has affected most states like
Zamfara to increase their Internally Generated Revenues.
Yari said the declining oil price which has affected the revenue
generation of the country has in turn reduced the Federal allocations
state governors get to address issues such as salaries in their state. He was quoted saying:
"When the National Assembly enacted the law of paying N18, 000 minimum
wage, then the oil was about $118 per barrel and today where we are oil
is $41 per barrel, so, if it continues like that definitely we will
find it difficult to continue. We have to sit down with the labour and
see how we can review; either continue or downsizing, or see what we are
going to do".
Basically, there seems to be only two options; cutting the salaries or downsizing, according to the Nigerian Governors Forum.
However few state governors like Oshiomole and Wike have said they wouldn't cut back the workers salaries since they generate high revenue internally.
