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| Governor of Abia state |
ABIA State government, yesterday, expressed doubts over its ability to pay the N18,000 minimum wage to its workers.
This came as Governor Thedore Orji was said to be planning to prune the number of his personal aides.
Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Chief Don Ubani, told journalists, yesterday, that the government would pay the new wage if revenue allocation was adjusted upwards in favour of states and local governments.
Ubani said that Abia State paid N1.8 billion monthly wage bill, out of an average monthly federal allocation of N2.8bn.
He argued that with the new minimum wage, nothing would be left to run the administration.
Ubani said: “If the minimum wage is to be critically implemented, it means that many states, including Abia, would be left with nothing after paying salaries and allowances.
“The idea of the federal government having 52 per cent of the federal distributable revenue is unacceptable.
“That the governors have accepted to pay the N18,000 wage is a sign of good intent, but there is something that is very important: the issue of fiscal federalism should be restored.
“If it is not reviewed, it would leave the states badly handicapped. When the states are financially healthy, there will be peace and stability in the system but if they are sick, there will be crises.”
Ubani, however, noted that Governor Orji was determined to cut down the high cost of governance in the state by reducing the number of his aides.
He said the reduction of the governor’s security vote could only be decided by him, based on the security situation in the state.
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