- Introduces free Ramadan feeding
From John Adams, Minna
With barely three days after President Bola Tinubu appealed to state governors to pay wages award to civil servants, Niger state Governor, Mohammed Umar Bago has approved the payment of N20,000 wage award for every civil servants in the state.
Inline with President Tinubu’s submission, the governor said the implementing of the payment of the wage award was to help cushion the economic hardship being faced by the people.
Tinubu who was in Minna on Monday to commission the newly commissioned domestic terminal of the renamed Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Airport Minna and the massive agriculture mechanisation project of Governor Mohammed Umar Bago implied that if the states had implemented the wage awards, it would provide much-needed relief without causing inflationary pressures.
The President harped on the need for all states to adopt the wage award saying that the National Executive Council would also adopt it.
“If all of you, the sub-nationals have been paying the wages award, pending the determination of the new salary wage. Let all the state start paying the wages award. Whatever they are taking now plus the wage award would relieve the public.
“Please, I am not giving an order, I am appealing to you states, start paying the wages awards, let everyone start paying it. It is a relief to the people,” Tinubu said.
The decision of the Niger state Governor to commence the payment of the N20,000 wage award was announced during the weekly state Executive Council meeting held in Minna on Wednesday.
The Governor assured that the payment would begin this month of march and workers would begin to receive alerts on the wage award in addition to their march salaries.
In addition to this, the governor also said the government will be feeding the people at various points across the wards during the Ramadan, adding that the state government would commence the distribution of palliatives of 120 trucks of grains to assuage the plight of the people.