“Abia Resources Cannot Carry N70,000 Minimum Wage” –  Governor  Otti

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

Abia State Governor, Dr.Alex Otti, has said that the resources available to his State will not be able to pay the minimum wage of N70,000 per month. He said he will enter into a negotiation with State’s Workforce.

To do that, the Governor has set up a Committee to review the N70 000 minimum wage as approved recently. The Committee’s main assignment is to  come up with a figure the State will be able to pay.

Otti noted that the Committee is already interfacing with the leadership of the Organized Labour so as  to work out a figure that will be acceptable to all parties ,taking into consideration the meager resources at the disposal of the State Government.

“The minimum wage means that every other salaries will be adjusted accordingly. So my team and the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, are already engaging,  and we will come up with something in line  with the meager  resources available to the State.

Only last month, the Government had also negotiated the Federal Government’s N35,000 wage award down to N15,000 to be paid for three months.

The payments took effect from July ending.

The Governor who spoke at his monthly media interaction on Friday night ,August 9, 2024, stated that so far, his administration has decided to limit its operations within the scope of available resources.

He informed that the administration has not accessed  any loan facilities since coming on board in May 2023.

“Our administration has not borrowed a single kobo since May 2023. We have been working within the limit of the resources available.

“We have been  getting offers from many quarters. But for now, we want to operate with what is available. We don’t want to plunge the State into unnecessary debts”, Governor Otti noted.

But this is one pronouncement that may not persuade many, particularly the opposition.

The opposition has insisted that the State is already into heavy debts incurred by the present regime.

They have alluded to several billions of Naira which some firms handling construction works in the State have secured from financial institutions on behalf of the State Government.

Specifically, they  noted that the contracting companies have been given irrevocable authority to borrow several billions from banks, using the State’s Federal Allocations as  collateral.

The Source reports that a few months back, at a meeting with stakeholders in Umuahia to breakdown the 2024 budget, Mike Akpara, the Commissioner for Finance, had informed that N309 billion will be borrowed to finance the about N500 billion total appropriation law.

Besides, several  Government officials, including the Governor’s Media Aide, Ferdinand Ekeoma had, at different fora, admitted some borrowings, while at the same time insisting that the Government “is yet to draw down from some facilities secured by the previous administration”.