Abdulaziz Yari, Chairman, Nigeria Governors' Forum |
What, for instance, can the
current N18, 000 minimum wage buy for workers? Can governors honestly seek a
cut while they maintain their own lavish lifestyle? Should all the states be
bound by a common law regarding emoluments of their personnel? And what right
has a governor to remain in the saddle even when he is unable to pay workers’
salaries? In other words, does it not amount to failure of responsibility on
the part of a leader, in this instance a governor, who cannot manage the state
ship financially?
Until state actors submit
themselves to sincerely respond to the posers, and specifically look inward to
correct multiple anomalies prevalent in their domain, so would they contend
with the disequilibrium of their finances. Governors also need to be reminded
that wrong or simplistic prescription to their problem of cash crunch may
elicit very adverse consequences.
No doubt, the reality that
Nigeria is broke is dawning too late on the 36 states’ governors who, the other
day, met in Abuja under the aegis of Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), reviewed
the fiscal status of the country including their respective states and came to
the realisation that the continued payment of the minimum wage of N18, 000 was
no longer feasible. The immediate rationale for this position is the dwindling
monthly allocations occasioned by dipping crude oil price. When the current
minimum wage was agreed upon and formally enacted into law, oil sold for $126
as against its present $41 per barrel.
Expectedly, the Nigerian
Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have respectively
warned that given the massive devaluation of the naira as well as spiralling
inflation, it would be unthinkable to tamper with the minimum wage signed into
law in 2011.
Besides, the Minimum Wage
Act was informed by cost of living and not necessarily based on the fortune of
oil. Therefore, it would not be subject to the whims of public officials. They
threatened that if the minimum wage was reduced, they would wield the enormous
power of the workers, shut down the country and make it ungovernable. They
challenged governments to reduce cost of governance at all levels so that
resources would be freed for vital government responsibilities.
This matter should be
examined beyond the superficial, such that wage is determined in relation to
productivity. What is the worker being paid for and what is the worth of N18,
000? Is it difficult to diversify the economy in a way to terminate states’
dependency on Abuja where they visit regularly to collect the statutory monthly
allocation from the Federation Account? Isn’t it unfortunate that the governors
have suddenly recognised their precarious position and are now contemplating
how to diversify the economy? What happened to the idea of diversification of
the economy in the days of boom?
The bare truth is that the
states are coming from a background of waste and need to return to productive
governance. Expenditure must be synched with available resources. It is well
that the governors have said so and this is the time to walk the talk. They
must enhance revenue generation through cut in overhead costs arising from
superfluity of political office holders, the award of bloated pension to public
officials, payments to non-existing, or ghost workers, and other sundry
patrimonial indulgences.
It is disheartening to note
that federal largess has turned the states into resource gulper and arena of
leaders without ideas on how to create wealth and govern responsibly. Balanced
budgeting is to be preferred to a deficit one. Nigerians can no longer tolerate
the habit of waste.
Certainly, state
governments have failed woefully in the discharge of their responsibilities.
When an employer is unable to meet its obligations to its employees, it has
failed. Leaders are meant to solve problems and leaders who cannot solve
problem are a liability.
The Federal Government can
ill afford to bail out any state anymore; not when many of them are investing
in misplaced projects such as airports which are hardly their most compelling
infrastructural need in these lean times. The situation in which workers are
being owed backlog of salary is an emergency issue that should command the
utmost attention of governments in the country. If the country is not working,
it is due to the awkward structure of the Nigerian state.
In the short term, the
National Assembly should pass a law to allow the Federal Government deduct at
source loans already advanced to states as bail out. The governors are
shamelessly waiting for a better tomorrow, bereft of ideas on how to turn
around their current fiscal predicament. Yet, the reality of the country is
that yesterday is always better than today. To wait idly for a better tomorrow
is to rot on the altar of hopelessness.
Restructuring is a
long-term cure-all solution. True federalism is the only way to creatively
unlock the potentials of the country. Skewed federalism is central to the
country’s economic and political problems and its remediation is the cure.
While the current minimum
wage is by far too low, in a re-federalised Nigeria where its component units
would enjoy fiscal autonomy, states can negotiate their salary as well as fix
their minimum. As first step, the provisions of the 1999 constitution (as
amended) on the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC)
must be amended in ways that it fixes wages only for the Federal Government and
allow states appropriate legal institutional structures for doing same.
Many are endowed with
mineral deposits, which they can exploit for solvency. Fundamentally, the laws
inhibiting the independence of the state should be reviewed and expurgated
where odious to the smooth running of public affairs. (guardian)
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