The average price of automotive gas oil, known as diesel, increased by 50.20 per cent on a year-on-year basis amid economic hardship.

The National Bureau of Statistics disclosed this in its latest diesel price watch for February 2024.

Accordingly, the report stated that the retail price of diesel surged to N1,257.06 per litre in February from N836.91 last year.

On a month-on-month basis, an increase of 9.02 per cent was recorded from N1,153.01 in January 2024 to an average of N1,257.06 in February 2024.

Looking at the variations in the state’s prices, the top three states with the highest average price of the product in February 2024 include Akwa Ibom State (N1,525), Gombe State (N1,500) and Kwara (N1,444).

In contrast, the top three lowest prices were recorded in Adamawa State (N1,037.50), Kano State (N1,111.43) and Katsina State (N1,125).

The zonal representation of the average price of diesel shows that South South zone has the highest price of N1,343.09 despite its huge gas and crude oil deposits, while the South West zone has the lowest price of N1,164.05 when compared with other zones.

Says Gumi Not Involved In Rescue Of Abducted Kuriga Schoolchildren

Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has clarified that contrary to reports, 137 schoolchildren and not 287 were abducted on March 7, 2024 from Kuriga village in Chikun local government area of the State.

The governor, who made the clarification on Channels Television’s ‘Sunday Politics’ programme, said all the schoolchildren abducted by the marauding bandits had been rescued by the military in collaboration with local authorities from neighbouring Zamfara State, where the hostages were moved to by their abductors.

The schoolchildren were abducted from LEA Primary School and Government Secondary School, Kuriga, about four weeks ago.

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) ha on Sunday said a total of 137 students were rescued, contrary to reports that 287 children were abducted by the bandits.

An elated governor Sani said the number released by the military was the authentic figure, describing ‘287’ as a figment of some people’s imagination.

“I don’t want to join issues with anyone in terms of numbers. What is more important to me is the safe return of the children. Today, I am happy that they are back safely, in high spirit, but those numbers were just figment of some people’s imagination,” the governor stated.

“Today, I met with the families of the children and they confirmed to me that the numbers given by the military is the correct number,” he added, describing the ‘287’ figure as the creation of propagandists.

The governor, however, regretted that a teacher who was kidnapped alongside the pupils couldn’t make it out alive as he developed some complications while in captivity. He commiserated with the family of the deceased teacher and also consoled the families of the released schoolchildren.

He said, “It’s only one person that has not returned and that is the teacher. That is the fact of the matter but all of the 137 children are safely back. We had the unfortunate incident that the teacher couldn’t make it because he had some complications; he was sick — that was the report we got from the military and the security agencies but the rest of the children, all of them are back with us.”

The governor also said Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, was not involved in the negotiation for the return of the pupils, though the cleric had offered to negotiate with bandits for the release of the pupils.

Sani said, “All those speculations you are hearing today are figment of some people’s imagination. I can tell you that without any fear of contradiction. There was nothing like Gumi in this operation. I can tell you. I won’t undermine the efforts of our Armed Forces.”

…How we saved billions of naira

…Discloses why he left priesthood for politics

Rev Father Hyacinth Iormem Alia, born May 15, 1966, has been the governor of Benue State since 29 May 2023.

He is the second cleric to govern the state after the late Very Rev. Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu, who governed the state in the botched Third Republic.

The governor, who hails from Mbangur, Mbadede, Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State, got his First School Leaving Certificate from St. Francis Primary School, Agidi, Mbatiav in Gboko local government area of the state. In 1983, he enrolled at St. James Minor Seminary, Makurdi, after which he gained admission to study at St. Augustine’s Major Seminary, Jos.

He studied for a diploma in religious studies in 1987 and a Bachelor of Arts in Sacred Theology in 1990.

In 1999, he obtained a Master’s in Religious Education (Psychology and Counselling) at Fordham University, Bronx, New York City.

In 2004, he got an additional master’s degree in biomedical ethics from Duquesne University, Pennsylvania. He received a doctorate in the same course at Duquesne in 2005,

In this interview, the cleric turned politician explains why he ventured into partisan politics and his vision for the state. He also dismissed insinuations that he is at loggerheads with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume, just as he vowed not to allow the resources of the state to be shared among some few disgruntled politicians.

Excerpts:

By Dapo Akinrefon

What informed your decision to drop priesthood and join politics?

My advent into partisan politics was because too many things were wrong. I’ve lived my life as a functional priest in the last 33 years with my locals. I stayed with them, went to school, and returned to spend time with them some more. I have been in the trenches with them, and the people I loved working with, more, were the destitute, the poor masses, those who do not have a voice in the society, and those who are neglected and suppressed. When you are preaching the gospel, these are the primary things you must do. God does not want them to be lost to society. These are the people I felt should be taken care of. For years, local government teachers were totally forgotten, and I felt their pains. I had that at the back of my mind.

Again, since the creation of the state, it has been a glorified village. We didn’t even have light on the streets in the state capital. It is now that we are trying to construct internal roads because our internal roads were minimally tarred. You come into the state capital, Makurdi, and it is like you come into a village. I felt a number of things were missing, and so, there was a need for me to come and get things right.

The church is not against her priests joining partisan politics. Where it is a case of plurality of parties, the church will hold her reservations but at the same time, there is a leeway that if the church judges that the society is too dysfunctional and that the only person to salvage the situation is a priest, then, someone can spring up via the church to save the rest of the people.

Not many people understand this, and this is why I had to come in and save the souls. We had to take care of the human beings that are out there. In a number of places in the state, some primary schools are no longer functional. We need to fight for the future of Benue, which is like fighting for democracy.

We have to fight for democracy and these are the things that we have been trying to do, people need to understand that government is an opportunity to protect peoples’ lives and ensure that the people go back to their agrarian society.

Today, we are talking about food insecurity. If we do not have social and civil security, we would not have food security. These are concerning. When we fight for democracy, then, we are fighting for food security because farmers are on the farms.

You know, Benue was number one in a number of things not just in the production of yams but in the production of soya beans. So, we need to get back to this. I came to save the soul of the poor masses of the state. I came in to assure them that God loves them and that God loves them through democracy so that they can understand they and their children hold the future.

So, I came in for the state to have the fullness of democracy and the fullness of life.

In your inaugural speech, you vowed to transform the state. What difference have you made?

Very true. I declared a state of emergency on our infrastructure. Our primary schools are down, and as I speak, we have done so much at getting rid of ghost schools. Benue had more ghost schools than the existing functional schools.

Also, Benue had more ghost workers. For instance, we had a ghost school that had 95 teachers, and the least teacher on the staff was Grade Level 10, which has been there for a very long time. Just imagine how much the state lost educationally. What we did in the first month was to save N1 billion, and in the second month of our coming on board, we saved close to N3 billion from ghost workers.

We then shifted to the civil service where we saw some other things. The state nearly had more casual staff than more permanent staff. We had to weed out some of them, and it is just now that we are coming to terms with reality. That is what we are doing.

That was how we fine-tuned the system to work.

Having understudied all these in the last nine to ten months, some huge amount of shift has been made.

In terms of infrastructure, we are an agrarian state, and over 80 per cent of the people here are farmers, but unfortunately, they were never incentivized to be the best they would be on the farms.

So, we set out to do the roads that could lead from their farms to the market squares and back here to the centre.

We did 16 roads in Makurdi, and we are going to announce some 31 roads within the Makurdi township streets. At the same time, other contractors are working on rural roads across the state where we have most of our food production because that is where we want the impact to be first felt.

There are talks that you give contractors 70 per cent up front, but what is the guarantee that they will complete the job having gotten that much?

We write down that 70 per cent be given to them, but it is by installments because of the inflation we have and because of the trust that is built in there.

For the records, we do not give 70 per cent. The contractors have built themselves up and also because we have received other testimonials from other states. We also hold them at the jugular; it is not as if we just give them the contracts. It is not true that we give them 70 per cent, but because the State Executive Council said 70 per cent should be given to them, it is segmented. That is why most contractors are scrambling for Benue State.

Despite submitting reports for State Police, what steps are you taking to address the security situation in your state, especially in the rural areas?

Before we were ushered in on May 29, 2023, the security reports were horrible, and it is also on record that you heard that hundreds of lives were lost in one local government. Before you took that to heart, you heard of another one. We had tones of these deaths on our hands, but since we came in, it is on record that there has been relative peace. How do we know the indices? By the same security apparatus that we have and by the reports we get from our vigilantes, forest guards, and other security apparatus who are working in sync with most of our people. By the situation report we receive every day, we are able to measure that. Overall, we have relative peace, but at the same time, relative peace does not mean we have absolute peace.

We have skirmishes of late, and we had a large number of influx of armed herders that flocked into some local government areas of the state. These local governments are prone to insecurity because they share borders with other states.

The slogan out there is that Father must continue, but there seems to be some dissenting voices. Why do you think some members of your party are against your administration?

Well, in every administration, you expect those who oppose you. I came in with a plan to rebuild our state. Some people do best when there is a crisis, and there are some political leaders who dug a hole and keep everyone in the state down there, and they don’t want anyone to see the light of day. There was no infrastructure, and no one knew where the monies given to the state were going to. They did not better anyone’s lives; they took care of their individual families. We have a conscience and we want a report card we must present to the people. So, if a select few say they are in charge of the state and that before development comes, they must know when FAAC allocations come, it must be given to them first. Who does that?

The people brought me to the seat, and they ensured that I presented to them the merits of democracy. They voted me on trust. Let all political gladiators come up with ideologies and not dysfunctionality that will consume everyone. We were created since 1976. Where are we? Other states have gone ahead of us.

I have my character and reputation, I came into this game with a defined intention to work with the people and work for the people and accommodate everyone. That is what we will continue to do because at the end of it all, I am going to be responsible for everything. Some people want the funds to be given to them. I feel it is time everyone gets on board with me. I am for the people, with the people, and working for them. The people of Benue gave me their trust. I am not denying the understanding of doing what we should do by taking care of our statesmen. We have been doing that. I am a moderate person, I don’t need to go on television and say we are giving money to some people, that will be childish. I have hanging on my head, and Benue indigenes a huge debt that my predecessor left behind.

In as much as I agree that there should be opposition, what troubles me are some three individuals who want to be called the APC in Benue State and who want all the funds in the state to be handed over to them. How can we function? We consider the masses, and so far, the APC is doing well in the state, and we will continue on that path. So, anything short of that will be detrimental to the state, and I am not prepared to settle for less.

George Akume is at loggerheads with you. What is your relationship with him, and how is it affecting the state? The national leadership of your party also gave an ultimatum that the faction of the APC in your state should withdraw all court cases. How has that gone?

For the record, I never took the APC to court, and so, the letter is not talking about me.

Those who are working for the APC in the state have not taken the party to court. Let that be clear.

I am not distracted in any form or fashion because I came into the bidding of the party and, above all, the people.

We are executing that script, so there are no distractions whatsoever, and that is why I am doing the work I am doing.

In some places, you hear people calling me Mr 25 because their salaries are coming in by then. People need to understand the stability of governance. They worked for it, they earned it, and why should we keep their money?

As regards my relationship with the SGF, Senator George Akume, for the records, I don’t have any differences with him. He was the leader of the APC in the state, and he ensured that everything was done for me to win, and we won.

There is no way I will talk ill of him or complain. He was the one encouraging me to break all the records of my predecessor.

I am also happy when I read where Akume says he has no problem with me. We don’t have issues, but then, it is granted that social media is a new world on its own where some miscreants flourish there.

There is agitation by the NLC over the new minimum wage. Is Benue State prepared to key into the new minimum wage?

We are prepared. As one of the sub-nationals, why can’t we be in sync with what the entire nation is doing? We must, and I am prepared to go for that. Once the minimum wage is agreed upon, we must also follow.

So far, so good, salaries are being paid, we are doing well with the payment of pensions of the people. Their lives are back, and I am willing to do some more for them.

On Benue Links

We met nothing on the ground. When we came, we saw the need to revamp the establishment. We needed to influence the movement of people who need to go to other parts of the country. This was why we did some investment by buying 100 buses at a time, and thank God, it was effective. We subsidized that so that the fuel subsidy removal will not have any effect on the people. I was happy with the result.

I am happy that the buses are running to a good number of states.

Apart from stopping the embezzlement of Benue funds, how have you been able to raise money to embark on the projects? Also, your predecessor was owing workers. Have you been able to clear the backlog?

I have not been able to offset the arrears. It is in hundreds of billions of naira, I can not take care of that now, but what I have done is to take care of their salaries. With the pensioners, their situation was more critical, but we are trying to take care of the pensions and continue to scale down. Governance deals with prioritization.

Some people accuse me that because I come from the church and because the church does not have money, we pinch money from the church and then, in governance, I am also pinching money instead of opening the entire treasury for everyone to take what they can take. I thank the church for giving me such discipline. Without the pinching, you can not rule the state.

Barely a month after the takeover of Kaduna DisCo over a N10 billion debts, the federal government has concluded plans to take over Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, over alleged prolonged poor performance.

BEDC, one of the successor distribution companies, created, following the unbundling and privatization of the state-owned Power Holding Company of Nigeria Plc, currently distributes electricity in Delta, Edo, Ekiti, and Ondo states, with a geographical coverage of 57,353 square kilometres.

Checks by Vanguard, weekend, indicated that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, an independent regulatory body with authority to regulate the electric power sector in Nigeria, has already penciled down new directors and management to manage the DisCo in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the governments of Delta, Edo, Ekiti, and Ondo states, which complained about poor service delivery to their people, have petitioned NERC, seeking to play active roles in the management of BEDC.

The states, which have indicated interest in exercising their rights to participate in the company’s decision-making, also called for the unbundling of the DisCo’s operational areas based on state boundaries, stressing that they had not given consent to other stakeholders, including the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, to act on their behalf.

In their letter – Notification of Interest to Exercise Shareholder Rights in Benin Electricity Distribution Company – to NERC and sighted by Vanguard, the state governments, said: “We write to formally inform NERC of the intent of the governments of Delta, Edo, Ekiti and Ondo states (the BEDC State Governments) regarding our collective residual equity in the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC.

We intend to exercise shareholder rights – Four states

“After a thorough evaluation of the operational deficiencies and services delivery failures to our states, the BEDC state governments intend to exercise our shareholder rights in BEDC, to ensure the efficient provision of electricity services to our citizens.

“The provision of reliable electricity to enhance the welfare and development of our people is a core priority of our governments. As such, we cannot afford to overlook the critical importance of ensuring that electricity distribution services provided by BEDC meet the needs and expectations of our populace, henceforth.

“In exercising our shareholder rights, the BEDC state governments intend to actively be involved in the decision-making processes of BEDC, both at the board and management levels of the company, to strengthen service operations to enhance service delivery, improve operational efficiency, increase electricity access to unserved and underserved communities and ultimately, transform the electricity sector within our states.

“Please, note that our demand is not capricious and merely wishes to correct a historical lapse. We wish to emphasize that at no point did the BEDC state governments give any Power of Attorney (PoA) to either the federal ministry of finance incorporated or the bureau of public enterprises, BPE, with respect to our shareholding in PHCN successor, Benin Electricity Distribution Company, or the post-privatized entity.

“It has come to our notice that the commission intends to exercise a regulatory takeover of BEDC by March 31, 2024. The commission is kindly requested to formally notify the BEDC state governments before taking any regulatory action to appoint new directors and a management team for the company. We also urge the commission to immediately commence the process of unbundling BEDC into operational areas along state boundaries.

“We wish to assure the commission of our support and cooperation in exercising any regulatory action against BEDC and its core investor, provided our rights as shareholders in the company are not breached.

“Lastly, we kindly request a meeting with the commission to discuss our intention as outlined in the letter, viz, to exercise our rights in the company to work out how these rights will be exercised under the commission’s regulatory oversight and for the benefit of all stakeholders involved.”

States have rights to determine future of Discos —Ekiti govt

In a telephone interview with Vanguard, the Commissioner for Infrastructure & Public Utilities, Ekiti State, Prof. Mobolaji Ebenezer Aluko, said: “The state and federal governments have 40% of BEDC, and our four states as a whole have 34.2% of that 40%.

”Nationally, all states have 27% of the 40% of government, with the federal having 13%, and then the states have as much right, even more rights, than the federal government, to sit at a table to determine the future of the DisCos.

“The Federal Government has asked the DisCos to unbundle along state lines, according to the Electricity Act 2023. The BEDC states are merely demanding a seat at the upcoming discussions, in the spirit of subnational democracy.

”We also believe that our participation will lead to more efficient distribution of the abysmally small energy currently available nationally: that is 13 gigawatts, GW, capacity generation – 8GW Transmission capacity – 3-5GW distribution after Aggregated Technical Commercial and Collection Loss, ATC&C losses.

“The energy mix for power generation should vary from one state to another. Renewable energy should also be utilised and distributed off-grid. The cost of transmission will reduce because of short distances from generation within each state. DisCos should have no monopolies and should provide adequate meters to consumers.”

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational Associated Institutions will resume today (Monday) after the seven-day warning strike they embarked upon last week.

Their sister union, the National Association of Academic Technologists of the University, also embarked on a three-day strike last week.

The three unions are protesting the withheld salaries following a prolonged strike they embarked upon in 2022.

The administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari invoked withheld their salaries by invoking the policy of ‘No Work, No Pay’.

However, President Bola Tinubu recently ordered the payment of the withheld salaries of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, who had also embarked on a strike in 2022.

As a result, NASU, SSANU and NAAT called on the government to pay them too, threatening to embark on a strike.

Amid the strike last week, the striking unions met with the Federal Government but the meeting ended in a deadlock.

Giving an update on the issue during a Zoom meetng on Sunday, the National President, Joint Action Committee of SSANU, NASU, Mr Mohammed Ibrahim, said: “The strike ends tonight, (Sunday), everyone is resuming to work on Monday, and the government has till now not acceded to our demands. No payment has been made. The government is not responding to us.”

He added that the National Executive Council of the unions would meet and discuss during the week to know the next line of action.”

Ibrahim emphasised that aside agitation for the payment of their withheld salaries, there was the need for the Federal Government to consider the renegotiation of 2009 FGN/NASU and SSANU agreements and payment of N50bn earned allowances.

Also speaking, National President, NAATS, Mr Ibeji Nwokoma, revealed that the union went on strike between March and August 2022, stating that the Federal Government, through the Minister of Education, announced publicly at a stakeholders’ meeting that all staff of the university should be paid, saying they were surprised that the non-teaching staff were exempted.

“We all went on a legitimate strike action; I want to believe something went wrong or somebody is trying to cheat us,” he said.

Also speaking, the Vice-President of SSANU, Dr Salaam Abdussobur, said, “We are not a strike-happy union. The reality is the fact that generally, the FG is treating the university staff with contempt. The government is not holistic in the way it treats the university workers, and the SSANU/NASU is treated lower in the cadre. For instance, Federal Government universities do not have Governing Councils, the government is turning the Vice-Chancellors into dictators.”

Traditional rulers in Delta State have vowed to aid security agencies in apprehending the perpetrators responsible for the killing of military officers in Okuama community.

The monarchs described the killings as unprovoked and barbaric, which led to the deaths of the officers on rescue missions.

Rising from a meeting of the Delta State Council of Traditional Rulers in Asaba, the monarchs, in a five-point communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, condemned the killings.

Council Chairman and Orodje of Okpe, Major-General Felix Mujakpuero (retd), Orhue I, while commiserating with the immediate families of the slain officers, the Nigerian Army and the Federal Republic of Nigeria, prayed that God grant their souls eternal rest.

The Delta monarchs called on the Delta State government to set up an independent investigative panel of inquiry to ascertain the immediate and remote cause of the communal crisis between Okuama and Okoloba communities.

The royal fathers also appealed to the Nigerian Army to carry out their search for the perpetrators of the killing of the gallant officers in line with global best practices.

They called on members of the public to stop peddling falsehoods and unsubstantiated claims, as such action could further exacerbate the already fragile peace in the state.

The meeting was attended by the immediate past chairman of the council and Obi of Owa, Dr Emmanuel Efeizomor II; the first vice chairman and Pere of Akugbene Mien, SP Luke Kalanama VIII; and the second vice chairman and Obi of Ubulu-Unor, Agbogodi Henry Kikachukwu I, among others.

Although President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will turn 72 on Friday March 29, 2024, he has asked well wishers not to commemorate his birthday with pomp and pageantry.

Tinubu, who spoke through his aide, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information & Strategy on Sunday, said the day will be another important milestone in his life as a leader and a statesman.

According to the president, it is not unusual that during an auspicious occasion as this, it is customary for family members, friends and associates to celebrate him in different ways.

But as the leader of our country, President Tinubu in deference to this challenging times will not host any birthday event and does not want any of his associates and numerous well-wishers across the country to organise any celebratory event on his behalf or in his name.

Onanuga said, “The President appreciates the honour of being the leader of Africa’s leading nation at this time and he is working very hard to make life better for the generality of our people.

“Because of the present mood of the nation and recent killing of the officers and men of our Army and Police in Delta State and recent spate of security breaches by criminal elements in different parts of Nigeria, there should be no form of birthday event and placing of birthday goodwill advertorial messages in newspapers. Goodwill messages should not be placed on radio and television stations too.

“He enjoins friends and associates who may wish to place goodwill advertorials to kindly donate the money to charity organisations of their choice in his name.

“Although the President appreciates the gallantry of our armed forces in freeing our children kidnapped in Kuriga, Kaduna State and in Sokoto State, he will use the opportunity of his birthday to reflect and re-dedicate himself to the task of building a more stable, more secure, virile, prosperous and united Nigeria”.

The Nigerian contingent to the 13th All African Games held in Ghana, finished second on the overall medals table at the end of the tournament.

Naija News reports Team Nigeria finished with a total of 47 gold, 33 silver and 40 bronze medals across 25 sports at the competition.

The Nigerian team won its highest medal haul in weightlifting, winning 32 medals—16 gold, 10 silver, and six bronze.

Athletics was Nigeria’s second most productive sport at the Games, with 22 medals won.

Nigeria got 11 medals from wrestling, 8 gold medals in a day in boxing, while arm wrestling also produced 13 medals.

Despite Nigeria’s impressive outing at the tournament, it was Egypt who finished tops on the medals table with 189 medals, comprising 101 gold, 46 silver and 42 bronze.

South Africa placed third on the medals table with 106 medals — 32 gold, 32 silver and 42 bronze medals.

Algeria finished third with 29 gold, 38 silver and 47 bronze medals, while Tunisia completed the top five.

The next edition of the African Games will be held in Cairo, Egypt, in 2027.

A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu, has criticized the notion that the naira will stabilize at N400 to the dollar.

The political economist deems the notion as unrealistic.

Naija News reports that Moghalu expressed his viewpoint through a series of posts on his X account on Sunday.

He wrote: “Those who want the Naira to be N400 to the $ are living in a dream world. Even discounting for the negative impact of speculative attacks on the value of the Naira, the exchange rate will (and should) reflect its market value in reality, not the artificiality that the Emefiele era central bank sought to maintain to please economic illiterates in political power at the time.

“That artificiality created room for massive arbitrage by speculators which bled the economy. Nigeria does not (yet) have a productive export economy. That’s the heart of the matter.

“And we do not have $100 billion in foreign reserves. So on what basis would the Naira forex rate return to some fantasy land soon? It will also take time to regain or achieve full investor confidence such as we had when we were there (and the rate was N150-165 to the $).

“The sooner we focus on a painstaking creation of value-added manufacturing export economy that earns forex beyond oil in real and significant terms, the better.

“Key to this is the electricity conundrum in which we are at less than 4,000MW of generation for a population of 200 million for decades now. Take power to even 20K megawatts (let’s not talk of 50K for South Africa’s 60 million population or Brazil’s 181K megawatts for a population only slightly larger than Nigeria) and you will see what the Nigerian entrepreneurial spirit is capable of.”

Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Zamfara default payment of N30,000

Many of the 36 states are in a quandary on how to cope with payment of the new minimum wage according to reports from some of the states.

Negotiation is already intensifying between the federal government and labour over the new minimum wage with investigation showing that six states

Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Kebbi, Nasarawa and Zamfara- are yet to implement the current minimum wage of N30,000,almost six years after its introduction.

Four other states –Ebonyi, Benue, Kogi and Osun – are only paying the minimum wage to workers on levels one to six and in the case of Osun, beneficiaries are those from level 7 and below.

Many of the states have also not done well in the payment of wage award to workers to cushion the effect of the current rise in the cost of living, according to a report prepared for the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

In the NLC report sighted by The Nation states confirmed as paying the current minimum wage are: Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Borno, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba and Yobe.

The excuse often given by the states that have not been paying the minimum wage is paucity of funds.

Although the monthly allocations to the three tiers of government have increased substantially in the aftermath of the fuel subsidy withdrawal, the defaulting states are still foot dragging on effecting payment of the minimum wage.

The situation appears even worse in respect of payment of wage award by the states.

Only Ondo and Lagos states are recorded as having paid anything close to the N30,000 per month for a half year as initiated by the federal government.

Ondo paid N35,000 and Lagos N31,000.

Some other states pay amounts ranging between N10,000 and N25,000 while some have not even paid anything yet.

States yet to pay the wage award are: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Edo, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Rivers, Taraba and Zamfara.

Akwa Ibom is said to have paid palliative allowance for Christmas only while Anambra paid only N12,000 and Niger State N20,000 also in December.

Delta paid N10,000 for September, October and November.

Reports from the states said the governors were not amused by the high figures demanded by labour activists during the recent zonal public hearing on the minimum wage organized by the 37-member committee set up on the issue by the federal government.

The figures range between N447,000 and N850,000 per month.

The committee which is headed by a former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Bukar Aji, has six governors among its members: Mohammed Bago (Niger State, representing the North Central); Bala Mohammed (Bauchi State, representing the North-East); Dikko Radda ( Katsina State, representing the North-West);Charles Soludo (Anambra State, representing the South-East); Ademola Adeleke (Osun State, representing the South-West); and Otu Bassey (Cross River State, representing the South-South).

Also on the panel are Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha; Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; Minister of Budget Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, and the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Esan.

The governors, who said unrealistic demands from Labour would not do anyone any good, urged the Minimum Wage Committee to consider the capacity of the states to pay the new minimum wage.

The committee is scheduled to meet again later this week.

Experts: How governors can cope with new minimum wage

A former Director-General at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Muda Yusuf, believes that the states can pay a reasonable minimum wage if they have the right policies in place.

“Well, the point is that the states are getting more revenue now and so, their capacity to pay has increased,” he told The Nation by phone yesterday.

He added: “There is no doubt about that. But the major thing I think they can do to meet up with the minimum wage obligation is to take a cue from what the federal government is doing.

“Many of them (states) have over-bloated workforce, whether at the state or local government levels. Some of them do not need more than half or two thirds of the current workforce that they are carrying.

“There are so many idle hands in the state bureaucracies. There are too many political appointments and too many people on their payrolls. So, they have to also prune down that.

“Because if you must engage people, you must give them a wage that makes sense. You don’t just engage people for the sake of engaging them. What is worth doing at all is worth doing well. “So, let them just retain the size of the workforce that they can give a wage that is a bit reasonable, especially given the realities of inflation that all of us are facing now. I think those are the things I think they should do first and foremost.

“Then of course, they should also be more creative in getting more revenue internally. Many of them are too dependent on the federal allocation. So, they need to be a lot more creative.”

On whether the state governments need to consider raising taxes in order to jack up their revenue base, Yusuf spurned the idea, but would rather they get more ingenious with the tax administration.

“Asking the states to boost their revenue profile is not about raising taxes at all. It’s about efficiency in tax administration. In many of the states, their tax administration system is so very loose. People are doing business in those places and it is their responsibility to pay tax. We are not talking about increasing the taxes regime. We are talking about efficiency, we are talking about using technology to ensure that the citizens’ taxes, especially the corporate citizens also live up to their statutory obligations to the government.“

According to him, “Some people are doing businesses across the states and some of those businesses are doing well and some of them are not paying any taxes at all. If you go to some of those states, you have some big properties that people have built there; it’s not poor people that built them there. In many of those places, many of them are not paying any form of taxes. So, the point to make is about efficiency in tax administration.”

Pascal Efe, a public affairs analyst, shares the same sentiments with Yusuf. “I agree that a new minimum wage is indeed inevitable given the current state of affairs. What the state governors can do is to ensure proper management of their resources by cutting down on many wasteful expenditures. That way they can pay the minimum wage and still be able to carry our critical infrastructure in their respective states.”