Governor of Edo State, Adams
Oshiomhole has approved 5 per cent
pay rise for health workers in the
state, emphasizing that the wage
increment is for all health workers
including laboratory technicians,
nurses and midwives.
The government had earlier in the
month also raised doctors’ pay by 5
per cent. This is coming even as many
states in the country find it difficult
to pay their wages with many owing
salary arrears for up to five months.
Governor Oshiomhole announced the 5
per cent pay rise for the state health
workers when he received members of
the Joint Health Sector Union
(JOHESU) who paid him a courtesy
visit at the Government House, Benin
City.
He said, “I asked you to come over
because I know that two years ago,
we had a wage review based on
certain criteria which you preferred to
call 90 per cent but for me, that was
what we were willing to pay and were
able to pay at that time. And I did say
that when situation improves, we
would look at it and make some
further upward adjustment.
“At that time, our main source of
revenue which is oil was at about 60
dollars, 70 dollars, 80 dollars and
today, it is hovering around 30 dollars
per barrel but certainly under 40
dollars and nobody knows what it is
going to be. However, I do recognise
that for us to maintain our integrity in
the eyes of our workers, when
promises have been made in good
faith, as much as possible, we should
try to keep those promises.
“It is no secret that Nigeria’s economy
is in crisis. We are burdened not only
by low price of crude oil, we are also
saddled by massive looting and
diversion from public treasury at the
federation level. If you have been
reading the news as I have done, both
print and electronic, it is now
established that NNPC did not remit
as much as N3.2 trillion to the
federation account under Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala as the Minister of
Finance and these are the issues we
have been talking about.”
He said, “Now, Edo State’s share of
that money, if it had been remitted
to the federation account, would have
been more than N50 billion. So those
numbers that they throw around in
Abuja have direct implication on
states and local governments. Imagine
what we could have done if we have
extra N50 billion today.
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