Efio-Ita Nyok|18 November 2016
Cross River State governor, Mr Ben Ayade, has been called different names among which is 'Labour friendly Governor'. Is he worth that tag? BudgIT is a civic organization that applies technology to intersect citizen engagement with institutional improvement, to facilitate societal change. BudgIT holds the opinion that Cross River is among 33 states owing workers salaries, etc. This position was contained in a yesterday report 'LIST: See 33 Nigerian states that can’t pay workers salaries and 3 states that can', by Vanguard Newspaper.
To contextualise the report, it will be recalled that the FG had dished out the sum of N90 billion to states as part of a bail out fund to enable them pay salary and pension. Cross River got N7,856,400,000. It used the sum of N3, 140,083,040.77 and had balance of N4, 715,516,959,23. The interesting thing is that it paid salary of state civil servants. LG staff and pensioners are owed their salaries, etc. It is owing for no just cause. Where is the balance of N4, 715,516,959,23? It should also be emphasised that the CRSG had no business collecting that FG Bail out Fund and plunge the state further into debt because it wasn't owing salaries, etc as at the time of the collection of that fund.
LIST: See 33 Nigerian states that can’t pay workers salaries and 3 states that can
According to BudgIT, last year 2015, 19 states in Nigeria that could not pay workers’ salaries, albeit now that number has swollen to 33 and Cross River is regrettably among. Here is a full list of the states that are finding it hard to pay workers:
1. Akwa Ibom
2. Bayelsa
3. Oyo
4. Osun
5. Ogun
6. Plateau
7. Delta
8. Kwara
9. Adamawa
10. Abia
11. Benue
12. Bauchi
13. Jigawa
14. Kano
15. Cross River
16. Kogi
17. Imo
18. Ondo
19. Nassarawa
20. Yobe
21. Kaduna
22. Ekiti
23. Sokoto
24. Borno
25. Taraba
Cross River could not be listed among states that have been able to meet up with the partial payment, namely,
1. Zamfara
2. Gombe
3. Anambra
4. Niger
5. Katsina,
6. Ebonyi
7. Edo
8. Kebbi
Let alone, among the three states that are able to pay their workers:
1. Lagos
2. Rivers
3. Enugu
Could we say still that say that in owing LG, teachers and pensioners for this long, I hear 5 months that the Executive Governor of Cross River State is a labour-friendly state boss? Are LG staff not civil servants?
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger, the Editor & Publisher of NegroidHaven.org
