By Ikhili Ebalu, Benin City
Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo, on Sunday in Benin, has increased the state minimum wage of his state workers from the current N30,000 pegged by the federal government to N40,000.
Obaseki made the announcement while delivering his speech at the 2022 workers Day celebration.
According to him, “As we all know, the minimum of N30,000 can barely sustain a family, it will be immoral and mindless of us to continue to pretend that we do not know that our workers are suffering.
“The government of Edo have now decided to review the minimum for Edo workers from N30,000 to N40,000 a month, undoubtedly, Edo is the first state since the current outbreak of coronavirus to take this initiative.
“Even though we would have loved to pay more, we hope that this little adjustment would enable to cushion the impact of the inflation that we have faced. There is no doubt that the financial implications will be heavy and put another borden to government.
“But as a government, we are prepared to make the sacrifices, as that the workers can live a better life. Your welfare is our number one priority”, he said.
Speaking about the state pensioners, the the governor lament the hardship they are going through as a result of the high cost of food and other items in the country, saying that his administration had tried to provide support for the state senior citizens.
“I am particularly interested about our senior citizens because they are one of the most vulnerable in our society, we took interest in payments of outstanding pensions to our pensioners in spite of the fact that these pensions were hold by previous administration.
“In view of the prevailing economy circumstances, I have now approved effective this May that the agreement we have reached with the Union of Pensioners that the harmonized amount would be pay from May 2022.
“Government is aware of the difficulties faced by the pensioners due to the non-payment of pension and gratuities to pensioners by previous government, this responsibility is huge and it will require substantial part of our resources to settle them.
“However, we are not a government that is known from running away from challenges, we will look for away to tackle this challenges.
The governor also used the occasion to address the issue of economic hardship in country as he urged civil servants to take advantage of opportunities offered by his administration in the agricultural sector to increase food production in the country.
In his address, the state Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Odion Olaye, has called on the federal government of put machinery in place to arrest the high rate of insecurity, instability in the economy, unemployment and hunger as it is capable of disintegrating the nation.
Olaye who speaks through the Secretary of his union, Mr Barry Imade, said that the organised labour strongly believes that when there are jobs opportunities in any economy, such economy will certainly experience growth in both human and infrastructural development.
He further stressed that the state own institutions are in a state of abandonment and if nothing drastic is not done to revitalize them they may soon go into extinction, adding that the 65 and 35 per cent subvention policy has strangulated them financially and academically…. Continue reading