Workers Salary: Group Lauds FG Over Bailout

The Chairman, Nigeria
Professional Shareholders Association, Mr Godwin Anono, has  commended the Federal Government’s bailout of cash strapped states that could not pay their workers’ salaries.
Anono told reporters  in Lagos that such a policy would ameliorate the economic sufferings of Nigerians with the woeful price of crude oil in the international market to the country.
He applauded the bailout stating that the affected states would not function properly without such assistance.
The chairman, however, urged the Federal Government to ensure to do thorough oversight in the use of the resources by the beneficiary states.
“The setting up of a panel to probe how the fund will be spent is necessary.
“It is also important that the government punish any government official that misappropriates them.
“Adequate penalty and sanction must be meted out to any political office holder who steals the bailout fund to serve as a deterrent to others in the future,” Anono said.
President Muhammadu Buhari had approved a comprehensive relief package worth N713.7bn to bailout some cash-strapped states that owed months of salary arrears to workers.
The Federal Government’s bailout was aimed at resolving the lingering crisis of unpaid workers’ salaries, especially in those states owing more than five months.
A former Director of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Titus Okurounmu, said that many Nigerian states would continue to remain insolvent if they did not develop their internally generated revenue (IGR).
He said the financial crisis of many states of the Nigerian federation was due to their lack of creativity and innovation to grow their revenue base.
“Increasing IGR is one of the solutions that will enable the 36 states to create wealth.
“Almost all our states and local governments tend not to be exploiting the potential each of them have in the area of revenue generation.
“The state and local governments need to move away from the tendency of total dependence on allocation from the Federal Government.
“We are at a point that partnership with the private sector must be encouraged as a necessity to develop the IGR potential of the country,” Okurounmu said.
To a polytechnic don, Mr Mosheed Akinloye, the financial assistance rendered to some states by the Federal Government to cater for unpaid workers’ wages was good for the economy.
Akinloye, a Part-Time lecturer of the Department of Accounting, Lagos State Polytechnic, said that the bailout proved that the Federal Government was indeed a “big brother“.
“The policy clearly indicates that our federal authority is one of the avenues of last resort for states of the federation in financial crisis.
“But the bailout should not be construed as an opportunity for governors to be reckless with funds hoping that they will get assistance from the Federal Government all the time,” he said.

Rivers Lawmakers voting to request the State Governor to dissolve the former State Local Government Service Commission.