- Warns FG To Pay N35, 000 Monthly Wage Award Or….
- Raises Fresh Alarm Over Nigeria’s Rising Debt Profile
The failure of the Federal Government to sustain the payment of the N35,000 wage award to workers in the public sector is set to pit the FG and the Trade Union Congress against each other triggering a fresh concern of another showdown.
The Matrix reports that following the removal of the fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu on his assumption of office, the Federal Government agreed to pay N35,000 to each of its workers to reduce the hardship caused by the subsidy removal.
The government, in a memo signed by the Chairman, National Salaries Wages and Income Commission, Ekpo Nta, stated that the payment of the wage award would begin to take effect from September 1, 2023.
However, The Matrix gathered that FG only paid the wage award once for the month of September while October and November wage awards have remained unpaid till now.
To this effect, TUC, on Tuesday frowned against this development.
President of the TUC, Comrade Festus Osifo rising from its National Executive Council, NEC, meeting in Abuja, warned the FG not to renege on its promise and pay the affected workers.
Osifo said the development was unacceptable to the Nigerian workers, adding that the government should remove bottlenecks in the N35,000 monthly wage award processes and pay the workers their dues.
“Specifically, on the issue of a wage award, it is on record that a payment has been made just once. As we speak now, our members in the federal civil service have not received the wage award since October.
“We wish to call on the government to fast-track all the processes. We learned that they are currently putting some things in place to pay this money but our people are not ready to listen to excuses.
“All we want is that this money should keep hitting the account of our members until the new minimum wage is put in place.
“We thank them for the once that they have done, but they have ceased doing it for a couple of months, so we call on the government to remove all the bottlenecks that are being experienced today regarding the wage award and to continuously pay this sum.
“I will also wish to call out the respective state government to do the same. For the state governments that have agreed to pay the 35,000 Naira wage award, we say kudos to them.
“For those who have also agreed to do something close to 35,000 we say we are welcoming that but for all those who are running away from paying these amounts or from providing any palliative to our members, they are only postponing the evil days because when the people are hungry, then at the end of the day, it increased the level of crime in society because people will keep looking for what’s to eat.
“So, we call on all state governments, including the Minister of FCT, to make provision of this sort for all Nigeria workers.
“Similarly, we also encourage aII those in the private sector to follow suit to provide succour to the people that are laying the golden eggs,” Osifo said
TUC also kicked against the debt-to-revenue base in the national budget submitted by the President to the National Assembly, saying the budget was based on a deficit that was not matched by the national revenue, and that the government was borrowing too much to finance its expenditure.
Nigeria’s total public debt hit N87.38tn at the end of the second quarter of 2023. The figure represents an increase of 75.29 per cent or N37.53tn compared to N49.85tn recorded at the end of March 2023, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO).
The congress called on the government to address the issue of tax revenue and reduce government wasteful spending at all levels.
Hear him; “As we have constantly stated, we are skeptical and worried by these states of our debt because our debt is continuously increasing. And this has put a huge burden on us.
“This year’s budget is also a deficit budget and the level of borrowing is growing on a daily basis and the amount of money we require to keep servicing this debt is growing on a daily basis in such a way that the amount of money we require to service debt is almost catching up with our national revenue, and this is problematic.
“While we are always told that the debt to GDP ratio is quite accommodating. Yes, that is true, but the debt to revenue is worrisome.
“I want the government to look into this as soon and as fast as possible. I also want to draw the attention of government to the hardship in the land. We want the government at all levels to tighten their belts because the situation where they’re asking Nigerians to keep tightening their belts and they are living in affluence. This for us is not acceptable.”
