Campaign spokesman of President Bola Tinubu in the South-East during the 2023 presidential election, Dr. Josef Onoh has urged governors in the zone to partner with the federal government in its current development drive.
Onoh, who addressed a press conference in Enugu on Tuesday, said it was wrong for states in the region to claim that they cannot pay the proposed minimum wage of N62,000, whereas the states’ revenues increased in the same proportion as the federal government.
He stated that compliance to the payment of the proposed minimum wage would accelerate even development among states of the south east and in Nigeria.
While acknowledge the compliance of the private sector in payment of the minimum wage, he noted that the federal government was working hard to ameliorate the prevailing hardship in the country.
He asked states in the South-east to also tap into other polices of the federal government such as in agriculture and healthcare in order to avoid job losses.
Onoh said: “It is imperative to understand the position of the federal government and the reason why the state governments have to be the ones to find a way to ensure that these wages are paid.
“While the state governors are saying that they cannot pay, it means that they will deep their hands in the federation account.
“The states have their internally generated revenue and if they agree to pay the minimum wage, they would give the federal government time to focus on more important thing.
“The president made it clear from the time of the campaign that he would focus on improved transportation to cushion the effect of hardship and bring down inflation.
“The governors in the south east are to keep that focus and have a harmonized ground to complement the federal government policies. The government said its offering over 3,000 CNG buses to cushion the effect of transportation.
“The federal government has also promised interventions in agriculture but when we talk about agriculture, the people of the south east look at the direction of the north.
“The South-east governors should complement those agricultural policies just like in the area of healthcare. But for the state governors to say that they cannot pay the N62,000 minimum wage as proposed by the federal government is unfair.
“Other states of the federation have agreed to pay the minimum wage and they receive almost the same federal allocation as those in the south east.
“Therefore, it will be unfair for our own states to say they cannot pay the minimum wages which their colleagues have agreed to pay.”
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