Emmanuel Thomas l Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018
LAGOS, Nigeria – Organised labour has proferred workable advice on how the governors will be able to raise money to pay the N30,000 minimum wage. Labour gave the advice ahead of the December deadline, following outcry by some of the governors that they lack the capacity to pay the money even as they have threatened to downsize.
Head of International Relations, Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC), Mr. Uche Ekwe said the governors should organised themselves and extract funds from the hundreds of Personal Assistants, Special Advisers whom they pay nothing less than N50,000.
Besides, he argued that some of the governors have incurred bills in excess of N5 billion on chartered flights, and jeeps which are on their elongated convoys and security votes.
“Most of the governors have 800 PAs, some 2,500 with no job description and collect minimum of N50,000 with not job discription. Some of them use to take flight like us, now they take chartered flight andthey bave spent over N5 billion on chartered flights, some have 35 vehicles in convoy,
“Some of the governors have over 1,800 PAs, some 2,000, some 2,500 Special Advisers”, whom he said have no job discription except getting the governors ready for elections as thugs.
“They have incured over N5 billion in cost of chartered flight, those are the place to source the funds, some have wasted funds in security votes, those are where to source the funds, some have 35 vehicles in convoys, those are places to source the funds”, he said.
According to him, some of the governors delude themselves as gods as soon as they ascend the throne believing they will be there forever.
“Well historically, we know that many peoople delude themselves when they take power , believing they will be there forever and start thinking of themselves as gods but experience has shown that no man has risen to position of being a god”, he said adding that labour is not harrased by the decision of the governors to downsize if forced to pay the N30,000 minimum wage.
“But it points to something very clear which I hope the Nigerian people will learn from and the workers must focus on as we move to the 2019 general elections”, he said, stressing that the outburst that civil service is overbloated, or workers don’t show up for work is laughable.
“Well, I found that very funny to talkbout being overbloated, it indicts the governors wo have working people who have no jobs, becasue they have decided to outsource the job that people should do everyday so as to have kick backs. So this argument makes the governors look incompetent and unable to govern a state”, he said on Raypower’s Fact File.
