MATTHEW ANIGBOGU
Both the Federal Executive Council and National Economic Council rose from their meetings on Thursday, April 21, with the decision not to deduct from source this month’s various amounts owed by states, in order to enable them to pay workers their salaries. Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, explained that the step is necessary to help reflate the economy because once expenditure is heavily restricted, the people suffer tremendously. Indeed, the Nigerian people have, in over one year, been passing through a particularly difficult time because, among other factors, 27 out of the 36 states in the federation have not been meeting their monthly obligations to their workforce. As a result, money has not been circulating in the system. Money circulates when civil servants receive their salaries and are, therefore, able to pay rents, school fees, medical bills and for foodstuffs, among other life necessities.
Much as the minister’s statement and action were as a result of noble intention, there is a question, which has, perhaps, not crossed her mind: What should be the reward for states, which have all along managed their limited resources so prudently that they have neither owed their workers for a day nor gone to the Federal Government for a bailout, as was the case towards the end of 2015 when 1.030 trillion naira was given to states for repayment over 226 months. Anambra State is one of them. Yes, the very few prudent states in the country should be given incentive, so that others could emulate them. This could be done by paying the states money the federal Government owes them.
Anambra State, for instance, is owed N32 billion for federal roads rehabilitated over the years in the state, which were in a most deplorable state. The N32 billion is actually the historical or book value of the debt. In other words, this was the collective amount, as at the time the jobs were executed. Given the dramatic depreciation of the Naira against the dollar in recent times, it would require a much bigger amount to do the same jobs now. Still, if the N32 billion debt is settled, it will go a long way to encourage the state to do more for the more people.
There may well be a silver lining in the sky. President Muhammadu Buhari has set up a committee to look into the debts owed various states, which reconstructed or repaid federal roads in their places.
The committee is headed by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who, everyone believes, will do a damn good job, given his record as the Lagos State governor for eight years, beginning in 2007. The minister has already promised that Anambra would be among the first states to get their money back. Before each road was fixed, there was an agreement between the state government and the Federal Ministry of Works on the extent of job to be done, the time frame and the monetary value.
While the Federal Government may be applauded for coming to the rescue of the states, it does seem that the central government has not drummed into the ears of state governments the need for prudent management. Many state governors still behave like emperors, rather than the servants of the people, who are faced with tremendous economic difficulties. They are preoccupied with ostentation and things, which cannot add value to their states.
In Osun State, the workers have been owed for over half a year. Doctors in the employment of the state government ended on April 3 a seven-month strike against non-payment of salary arrears. Yet, the state government has insisted on creating, in March 2016, 31 local development centres, which are more or less a duplication of local governments. In other words, the expenditure profile of the state is ballooning without evidence of improvement in the living standards of the people. In the mainly civil service state of Cross River, the state governor has hired as many as 1,000 special assistants and 44 special advisers, in addition to 28 commissioners.
From the look of things, the problem of non-payment of workers’ salaries in 27 out of the 36 states in the federation is not so much about falling oil prices as a lack of prudence in financial management. A state like Anambra receives a modest amount from the federation account every month. Yet, it pays workers and pensioners before the end of every month. In addition, it is still building roads and bridges across the state, to say nothing about providing good security, which has made the state today the safest in the country. In fact, Governor Willie Obiano increased workers’ salaries by 15 per cent last July. On the contrary, oil-bearing states, which still receive humungous amounts, do not pay their employees promptly. Bayelsa State is owing workers several months. The situation is, of course, worse in non-oil-bearing states. Benue is owing salaries for 14 months. The huge debts cause people to wonder if the bailout granted state governments for the payment of workers’ salaries last November has been utilised for the purpose for which it was granted in the first place.
The pathetic behaviour of many state governments in respect of the failure to pay workers’ salaries as and when due has more than economic implications. Failure by any government to meet its obligations to workers and contractors is one of the indices of a failed state. The other indices include the inability of the government to have control and authority all over the country and the inability of the government to enjoy legitimacy from the international community. By their inability to discharge their obligation to the people, many state governments are inadvertently helping to spread the notion that Nigeria is a failed state or, at least, a weak one.
The big question is: Why won’t other states, including oil-bearing ones like Delta, Rivers, Abia, Imo, Ondo, Bayelsa and Rivers borrow a leaf from Anambra in prudent management?
- Comrade Anigbogu, a labour and human rights activist, lives in Enugu.