The Nigeria’s Governors forum have alluded to the chances of their states going bankrupt if the N30,000 minimum wage being demanded by the organized labours is Implemented.
At an emergency meeting on Wednesday, the governors gave options that could make them meet organized labour’s demand one of which is the review of revenue allocation formula to give more money to the states from the Federation Account.
The other option is for the organized labour to agree to downsize the workforce.
The Chairman of the Governors Forum, Abdul’aziz Yari told newsmen that “the N18,000 today, when the President assumed office, 27 states were not able to pay, not that they chose not to pay. So, now that you say N30,000, how many of them can pay? We will be bankrupt. So, as Nigerians, we should look at the issue seriously.
“While other people are saying that governors are flying private jets and living in affluence, that one is not luxury but compulsory.
“The issue of government overhead cost, if you put it together with personnel cost, it cannot solve this problem. Like Lagos that is paying about N7 billion as salaries, if you say it should pay N30,000, it will now be paying N13 billion. From our calculation, it is only Lagos State that will be able to pay N30,000. “As Nigerians, this is our country; there is no other country we have and we should be fair to this country.
“We will continue to talk with Labour; let them see reasons why governors have difficulties. Some of us have Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). For instance, the money Lagos State is using to pay is not coming from Abuja. They have a way of getting their money from the IGR and that is why they can afford to pay.
“They get money through VAT. Apart from Lagos, even Rivers cannot afford to pay. So we have been crying out about this since 2011 but no one will listen.
“It is the same labour that is pushing for the N30,000 that will still turn around to say that the governors did not do any infrastructure and how are we going to achieve that by paying only salaries?”