The sixteen years’ reign of the People Democratic Party, PDP,
has been a matter of one step forward two steps backwards.
The economy is currently in comatose.
The nation’s foreign reserve has been depleted. To worsen
things, inflation and unemployment is at an all-time high
while corruption is rife. The truth, however, is that Nigeria is
actually in trouble.
One of the very daunting tasks that General Buhari and his
team would have to tackle, in earnest, is that of unpaid
salaries.
In the last sixteen years, the norm in budgetary planning,
formulation and execution has been for recurrent expenditure
to be excessively higher than capital outlay.
This is not, in any way, peculiar to the Federal Government
(FG) alone as nearly all the state governments in the country
operate a similar unproductive budgetary planning.
The consequence of this is the poor state of social and
physical infrastructure across the country. Almost all federal
roads are in terrible conditions.
The PDP-led government, after sixteen years in power, could
not fix the nation’s refineries as we continue to import
refined petroleum products.
This is what happens when a nation fails to prioritize its
developmental needs. No nation in the world, not even the
almighty United States of America, touted as the number-one
economy could develop via the kind of budgetary system we
have been operating in the past sixteen years.
High wage bills, as well as escalating cost of governance,
remains a major threat to the survival of democracy in the
country.
Presently, aside the various Federal Government agencies
and parastatals that are being owed various degrees of
salaries and emoluments, about twenty six (26) State
Governments in the country are owing workers salaries in
arrears of months.
The State of Osun readily comes to mind here as the state has
been singled out for target of media attack on this issue.
I am piqued about this though the state is not the only one in
this dire financial strait.
The Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was, in fact, the first
person to call national attention to this financial disaster in
2013, when he alleged that the FG had declared war on the
state as allocation dropped to 40%.
It will be difficult to query his record as a worker-friendly
administrator. In some states, in order to ensure workers go
home with something; salaries are paid in bits, and my lawyer
friend told me this was a breach of contract.
Expectedly, in most of the States, workers are threatening to
go on strike in a bid to press home their demands for prompt
payment of their wages. Things are not looking up at all.
With the decline in revenue accruing to the Federation
Account through the sale of crude oil, some of the states
might not be able to pay workers salaries, not to talk of
paying arrears of pension and gratuity being owed
pensioners.
As things stand, the amount that stands to the credit of each
of the states monthly is not enough to pay workers’ wages,
and this means all other similar recurring expenditures would
suffer.
A few of them that try to embark on capital spending do so
through loans from banks and bonds earlier negotiated,
which must be serviced regularly at huge cost.
With this stark reality, it has therefore, become highly
imperative for the incoming Buhari administration to take a
holistic view of the whole issue with a view to saving our
democracy from imminent collapse. Bureaucracy is meant to
help drive the pace of development in a democracy.
In any nation where bureaucracy has become the problem
rather than the solution, democracy would become
endangered.
This is where General Buhari, and his team need to take
decisive steps to save the country from what has become a
chronic and nagging problem.
As a stop-gap measure, one is actually canvassing that the
incoming Buhari administration bails out the states that are
owing excessive workers’ wages by offsetting such, and give
them enough to pay pensions and gratuity. We have done it
before.
Unpaid salaries have always plagued civil administration in
Nigeria.
Military takeover, had always been the quick fix, but with its
recurring nature, it’s obvious we have not found the solution.
Yes, government is always the biggest employer of labour;
we cannot continue to bring idle hands into governments
without a commensurate analysis of what is actually needed.
This is to avert undue labour disputes that could cause
needless troubles in the land. A sound employment policy
would still address the problem of unemployment.
Equally, the idea of the Federal Government entering into
wage negotiations on behalf of the State Governments should
be discarded.
Since the revenue base of each state differs, it would be
inappropriate for both the Federal Government and the
Labour Unions, to force State Governments to pay their
worker’s wages being paid by the Federal Government.
Each State Government ought to employ and pay according
to its capacity. Equally important is that labour unions must
desist from the incessant act of demanding for an arbitrary
wage increase.
While the work force deserves better pay packages,
government has responsibilities to the larger society through
the provision of social amenities and infrastructures.
In the same vein, governments across the land need to cut all
avenues that open the door for wastes in governance.
We have taken the issue of taxation too lightly in this
country. No nation attains greatness without the adequate
contributions of the citizens in the forms of taxes.
We must start emphasizing our tax systems to make
governments and citizens more fiscally responsible.
Democracy is about bringing development to a greater
number of the people.
It is about human and capital development. It ceases to be
democracy when just a few individuals or groups corner the
commonwealth while the rest of the society languishes in
abject poverty.
Now that change has come, it is, indeed, the right time to get
things done in the right way in order to get the right result.
God bless Nigeria.
Source: SunNews
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