Unpaid Salaries: 36 Governors to meet Buhari, call for review of revenue formula

Governor Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomole (right); Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; (2nd right); Deputy Governor Boron State, Alhaji Zannah Umar (2nd left); Governor Jigawa State, Alhaji Badaru Abubaker (left). during the All Progressive Congress (APC) Governor Forum, at
Imo State lodge in Abuja, on Tuesday

WORRIED by the dwindling economic situation in the country where 18 out of the states of the federation cannot pay salaries of staff, thirty- six state governors Wednesday buried their differences, put behind them party affiliation, resolving to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari to call for an urgent review of the revenue formula and address the problems precipitated by the economic problems.

The governors noted that it became imperative to  work with the President and overcome the problems because the issue of dwindling resources was not a state government problem alone, but an issue that had serious national impact.

According to the governors, they have agreed that the federal government should have 52 percent while states should have 36 percent to enable them concentrate on the development of their various states,  even as the states have moved to set up bodies that would help fish out where their predecessors “hid the resources accruing to the states from the federation account.”

Reading a communique at the end of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) which lasted for over four hours,  chairman of the body and governor of Zamfara state, Alhaji Abdullazeez Yari, who disclosed that they will meet with the president to hand over to him, their template towards resolving the problem, warned that if nothing  urgent was done to block the loopholes, the country would be plunged  into greater crises.

It would be recalled that the NGF had series of disagreement with former President Goodluck Jonathan  on issues especially of the excess crude oil receipts, revenue receipts from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Sovereign Wealth Fund and dwindling national revenue resources to the federation account.

On whether the Forum discussed the issue of non-payment of salaries and other financial problems, Governor Yari stated: “Well, we discussed that extensively, and we are trying to see that we find a lasting solution to what you just mentioned in our communiqué. The federal government is also on the same thing because some of the agencies cannot proceed further.  It’s not only states, so therefore is a problem of the entire nation not only state. Therefore, we are going to send the communiqué to the president so that we can get a lasting solution to it.”

Also speaking with  Journalists after the meeting, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State who called on President Buhari to block all the leakages and then go after those he alleged to have stolen the country’s money and force them to excrete what they have taken unlawfully from the national purse.

Governor Oshiomhole said, “I think the media is not being accurate, the country is bankrupt not just the state, the federal government finance is even worse in reality to the state, considering that they borrowed over 4 trillion. The entire fund for pension scheme has been drawn down by the federal government. It is because they borrow at will that you can seem to see that they are also bankrupt. So when we talk of bankruptcy, we should be talking about serious national economic crisis is not limited to states.”