National Wire About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories
Olabode Adaramola
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State has assured the state’s Civil servants that his administration remain resolute about implementing the new national minimum wage, adding that they will initiate discussions with the organized labour on how to proceed with the necessary modalities for the full implementation of the 30,000 minimum wage bill as signed into law by the President.
The Governor, gave the assurance in his address at the 2019 Workers Day celebrations, held on Wednesday at 123Quarters, Minna, the State capital, stressing that It was however, disheartening that despite conscious efforts by his government to turn around the fortunes of the state, that the state wage bill continues to remain static regardless of the number of the people that have either retired from the service and those who died between 2015 and now.
In view of this, he said , the civil servants in the State need to be sincere with themselves and support government in changing the ugly trend, adding that the
present administration in the State was very sensitive to the plights of workers and that of the retirees.
“We have made deliberate efforts to address the inherited challenges in settling the outstanding pensions and gratuities. This Government will continue to meet its obligations to workers by prompt payment of salaries, pension, gratuity and other allowances.
“Asides the fact that we are paying workers salaries as at when due on monthly basis and up till date, the state’s retirees have also been left behind because what we have done so far on pension and gratuity is N25. 7billions. We will continue to have a deep appreciation to our workers for their cooperation and understanding”, he stated.
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello further explained that because of the need to motivate the workers over the years, “we have continued to ensure prompt payment of salaries and wages as at when due”.
“And we have restored the annual leave grants for all cadres of workers, implemented the 100percent COHENS/CONMES for the health workers and implemented the federal paramilitary salary structure for the fire service in the state as well as the 25percent salary increase for the workers on grade level cadre, he maintained.
He said, these “are in addition to the refund of 7.5percent pension deductions to some workers as well as the 15percent salary augmentation for workers in the state owned Tertiary Institutions among others”
He pointed out that It was also worthy of mention that the State’s Judiciary has also received good attention since the inception of this administration, in the past four years, highlighting that their salaries and emoluments have been up to date.
Other achievements according to him was the approval of vacations and medical support for Judges and Magistrates for effective and efficient dispensation of justice in the state as well as ensuring facelift for courts across the state.
Accordingly, governor Sani- Bello said, “so far in this administration, we have employed 250 graduates through the State Civil Service Commission with 10 each from the 25 Local Government Areas of the state and we have also employed 151 young men and women into the State Fire Service.
He noted that this was in addition to the employment of over 400 health workers ranging from doctors, nurses to laboratory technicians, stressing that the process for the employment of over 2,000 primary school teachers was being completed at the state Universal Basic Education Board( SUBEB).
He thereby congratulated the members of NLC in Niger State for successfully electing new leaders to run its’ affairs for the next four years, saying, ” i personally congratulate Comrade Yakubu Garba for successfully emerging as the new chairman of the NLC Niger State Council”
The governor also assured that the State government will continue to show deep appreciations to our workers for their enormous commitment and dedication to their responsibilities over these years despite the daunting challenges.
“As I have often said, we will not promise to solve all the numerous problems in one day, because no government does, but gradually, we will focus on all the challenges with the determination to resolving them accordingly”, he maintained.
Finally, the governor commend the State Civil Service for continuing to serve as the engine room for the formulation and implementation of government policies and programmes.
“On this important occasion of the 2019 Workers Day celebration, I congratulate you all for supporting us to sustain good governance in the state”, he concluded.
Earlier, in his remarks, the State’s Chairman of the State, Congratulated governor Abubakar Sani Bello over his reelection in the just concluded elections in the State, while expressing the hope that the governor will work assiduously to consolidate and improve on the achievements he recorded during his first tenure in office, by paying special attention to other aspects that were earlier unattended to.
Comrade Garba expressed delight that Labour – Government relationship between the Organized Labour and Niger State government had been very cordial, adding that it gave rise to a score of achievements that were worthy of commendation.
These, he said among others include regular payment of monthly salaries, restoration of Annual Leave Grants, payment of 25percent salary increase for workers on Grade Level and 100 percent implementation of CONHESS and CONMESS for medical and health workers
He however called on the state government to put in place a machinery to address decay in infrastructure as well as improved the working environment of all government’s establishments, just as he called on the governor to look into the issue of funding of Local Government Service Commission in order to enable the commission to embark on the much needed training and retraining of workers at LGAs in parts of the State , among other important issues
The State Chairman of the NLC, thereby expressed the confident the Mr. Governor will redeem his earlier commitment to to the new National Minimum Wage , by paying the approved N30,000.00 in the out gone month , as the governor had earlier promised to implement whatever was agreed as National Minimum Wage.
