His Excellency may soon be on the run

vanguardngr.com

THE Nigeria Labour Congress ,NLC, the  apex labour organisation for all workers, announced five months ago, that 11 state governments had not paid December salaries to their workers.

The President of the NLC, Mr. Abdulwahed Omar, who made the comment in an ‘End of Year Message’ stated that three of the states, Benue, Plateau and Osun, were also owing between three to eight months workers’ salary arrears. In fact, most states owed workers salaries. Citizens carried the yoke of debts, which have not translated to any improvements in their lives. They thus, live continuously in hard times.

The Debt Management Office, DMO’s external debt figures, without adding domestic debts, show Lagos as Nigeria’s most indebted state with $1.17 billion debt, followed by Kaduna with $234 million debt, Cross River ,$142 million, Edo $123 million, Ogun $109 million, Bauchi $88 million, Katsina $79 milllion, Osun $74 million, Oyo $72 million, and Enugu $69 million. The states that are least indebted are:

Taraba N4.56 bn, Borno N4.61 bn, Delta N4.85 bn, Plateau N6.19 bn, Yobe N6.25 bn, Benue N6.62 bn, Abia N6.76 bn, Zamfara N7.11 bn and Kogi N7.16 bn.

Osun State is one of Nigeria’s poorest states, but it ranked 9th in the list of the most indebted states in the country. One of its debt-accumulating activities was the N11.4 billion sukuk, which made headlines in 2013,but left the state with several projects abandoned and workers’ salaries left unpaid for months. In spite of this, the Osun State Governor managed to retain his seat in 2014, elections, exposing the weakness of Labour, in that state. Our politicians have deliberately whittled down the power of Nigerian Labour, by compromising them one way or the other, in order to continuously deceive the people.

These Governors who owe workers salaries, rushed into Bonds and debts, and by so doing pledged the future of their states, as they would repay these debts over long time. They recently visited the President Elect, asking for money to pay salaries, but knowing that hard times awaits him too, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari GMB, was not enthusiastic with their requests. Some of them will have realised that hard times have come, but almost all of them, including those who could not pay salaries will try to carry on with expensive and wasteful lifestyles, hopping around in chartered flights, with endless convoys on the roads, and long list of irrelevant aides, while passing the burden to the citizens.

A Governor that refused to pay the salaries of workers in his state had no justification whatsoever to receive his salaries, hence Benue and Plateau workers succeeded to push their Governors out, while the rest managed to stay put. Life should be made very uncomfortable, for any Governor, who dares to owe workers a dime, in any month. He should be rejected by workers from that same month. All his deceitful events should be shunned by workers, and information about his financial dealings and life style should be exposed to Lawyers who will drag him or his acolytes for investigations.

Since these governors are likely not to cut their costs, they will pass the weight and burden to citizens through all sorts levies, and licenses in the name of Internally Generated Revenue, IGR. They will unleash suffering through things like Cow, Sheep, goat, food, water borehole, Vehicle Driving and Training, TV, Radio, Motorcycle, bicycle, parking, gutter cleaning, and house repainting, and Peper-soup joint fees and licenses, to generate revenue. Now that they have won elections, these Governors will re-introduce all those things and enforcements, on roads and streets that infuriated citizens, which they kept at bay during campaigns.

It is feared that austerity measures may be unleashed on the citizenry which could further aggravate the suffering of the ordinary worker. The incoming government does not seem to offer any encouragement to us, with their daily complaints of empty treasury, and huge debts they will inherit, etc, leaving some to wonder if they do not realise that Nigeria expects them to come and effect change.

Governors will slap themselves on the wrist with reductions in one or two freebies, and call it ‘sacrifice’ and then slam full sufferings on the people. GMB may therefore have to look inwards and cut some costs such as the Presidential Fleet, the cost of running the State House, reduction in the number of aides who add no value to governance, taxing the rich, etc. The Excellences, should agree on a template of Aides, staff and convoys, across the nation, to cut wastefulness in governance.

Already, workers continue to bear the brunt of the devaluation of the Naira. Yet, we provide our own water, electricity, houses, with no good roads,no good transport system, no good health care delivery, security leaves a lot more to be desired, we spend hours in traffic snarls, now, with no petrol to run our cars etc. The weight of additional austerity measures with its attendant retrenchments will be too heavy for Nigerian workers, and many of them will just die under the pressure!

Austerity will fuel corruption as people will try to survive, and it will lead to an increase in crime rate.

Instead, moneys should be recovered from Governors, Senators, and Political appointees, who have enriched themselves, through bargains. The public should be involved through a reward system, to expose crimes and stealing by former and incumbent leaders.

From News paper reports, over 12 ex-governors who won senate seats in the March 28 election, and 3 incumbent governors have cases of corruption ranging from misappropriation of public funds to money laundering hanging over their necks. We don’t need to look too far, as corrupt persons can be identified by their lifestyles before and after holding an office in government.

The EFCC, ICPC,and Police,should be funded, and encouraged to achieve recovery of 90 percent of stolen monies from leaders, than jail terms, through reward system for target recoveries.

If the change Nigeria have voted for will include proper fight against corruption, then some of these Excellences should be considering alternatives which may include to abscond ! Let’s watch them.