From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State in this interview gave explanations as to why his administration was finding it extremely difficult to pay salaries, the challenge of ghost workers and salary padding as well as moves he was making to address the problem. Workers in Benue state are not happy over the inability of the state government to pay them backlog of unpaid salaries and have therefore embarked on an indefinite strike. Why did the government allow the issue degenerates to this level? I know that they are not happy and I am equally very sad. I am not happy too, just like the people because as a leader, it is when the people are happy that I will be motivated to be happy. It is unfortunate that I have found myself where I am today. But as a child of God and someone who has faith in God, I believe that this too I will overcome. This is not the first time I am facing challenges in my life. I have passed through several challenges in life. In my academic pursuit, in my working life, in my business life, in my political life and in my family life but at the end God has always helped me and I believe that this will not be an exception. King David says ‘I will look up unto the hills from whence cometh my help,’ my help will come from God Almighty. And I trust and believe that we will be out of this. But let me say that, it is unfortunate that we have found ourselves where we are today due to the numerous challenges which is not limited to Benue State but the entire country. Nigeria went through a recession and just came out of it, though it is still very fragile but we are trusting and believing God that things will work and the economy will blossom and grow and things will be better. We took over power at a time that the main source of revenue to the states went down as a result of the drastic fall in oil prices. Oil that sold for about $140 a barrel went for as low as below $30. Today we have made progress because the last time I checked it was going for about $56 per barrel and I think that we are making progress. And that has also shown the difference in the Federation Account. The accrual that came in was a little bit better than what we used to have in the past. So, we are trusting that things will pick up and we will be able to discharge our responsibilities very well as a government. Let me also say that I inherited N69billion arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuity. It was a very big problem but government is a continuum and we had to work with it. And the wage bill then, was around N8.2billion without teachers’ minimum wage. When we came we said teachers should ideally be treated better than any other worker because of the strategic roles they play in the society, especially in the area of moulding the character of our children. And so, we said there shouldn’t be salary disparity, they should also enjoy minimum wage with the hope that things will improve and we went ahead and implemented it, only to discover that what was coming in was not enough to cater for just payment of salaries right from the onset. So, with the various interventions of the federal government and the borrowing, we thought we could redeem the situation to a level, but we could not redeem the whole situation. Now paying a wage bill which is N8.2billion including the additional responsibilities that came on our finances from the minimum wage of teachers which was close to N300million became a challenge. We, through various screenings were able to save up to N700million. So, today we are around N7.8billion as the wage bill of the state. This includes pensions and overheads every month. Now what comes in, initially every month from the Federation Account was an average of N5billion for both local governments and state. But things started improving and today we are talking of an average of N6billion as what comes in. As for the IGR, when we inaugurated the Benue Internal Revenue Service (BIRS), board things started moving well. And we were doing an average of N600million monthly, but there was huge outcry from traditional rulers, the clergy and the people over taxes, and as a listening government we took the advice of stakeholders and decided to mellow down. And though the law is there but since there was so much cry from the people, we decided to suspend some aspects. And so, that also affected our IGR but it has never gone above a billion naira except in very special cases when a firm made payments, like a particular month when Benue Cement was able to pay us N700million and another one, when we had over a billion Naira. When you talk about the reduction of the wage bill, are you saying you intend to reduce the salaries of workers? I did not say I intend to reduce, that is an option that is available. But for us we felt that with the high inflation, reducing now will cause more hardship for the people. But we are hoping that things will be better, so will continue to pay as we met it. But it’s really high and much higher than several states in Nigeria. We had a seven day warning strike before this indefinite strike what efforts did the government make to avert it? We met when there was a warning strike and we also met after the warning strike and we appealed to workers to come back and continue the same way we were going about it over a year ago because going on strike will not help, but to continue to dialogue. I am very open to superior positions that can add value to what we are doing, if it will help us make our workers happy. I am very open to workers or any other source that can help us, we are ready to accept that. The deputy governor’s committee is working and like I said, a lot of regulations are coming we are hoping that in the end, there will be substantial reduction in the wage bill after looking at all the issues because we are doing a modified open payment which we think will help us. But currently I think that we are on the right path because the last meeting I held with labour union representatives from the national secretariat we had closed ranks and agreed on what to do. And when they demanded that I pay four months I told them the challenge I had, the resources were not there. I was ready to work with them and the allocation of September we can put it together and pay full one month salary to all categories of staff in Benue stare. That was our agreement. I was surprised that the President of NLC had to come to the state after sending a representative who was in that meeting where an agreement was reached. This time he came himself and directed that workers should down tools. I think that it is not the best way, we can do better. We will continue to dialogue, I have set up a committee headed by the Secretary to the State Government, including the Head of Service and other government functionaries to continue to negotiate with workers. I call on them to come back. Strike, yes, because of the pains they are going through, but we can do better. Half a loaf is better than none. It is true we have not been able to meet our obligations as at when due, but we have never abandoned workers and we will never abandon them, we will continue to talk and work with them. We will continue to find ways around that we can make things better. We are discussing with financial institutions including PENCOM on how we can find a way out of this. We feel very strongly that for us to have a sustainable wage bill we must find a way of reducing the wage bill from where it is today. In doing that those legitimately employed who are also working and have schedules shouldn’t have any problem. But those who are ghost workers or those who found themselves in government and are not doing the work but are collecting salaries they will have no choice but to leave because I’m already pushed to the wall and we don’t know where to go. So we have to find ways. Do you know that so many people are residing in parts of the country but they come here to draw salaries? I know of a chief who has 15 wives and all of them are on the payroll of a local government and the children are over 20 all of them are there and some of them are in secondary and tertiary institutions, they are there drawing salaries. These are areas we must touch so that those people who are working legitimately and are doing their jobs can get their salaries as at when due. But those who have nothing to do working with government should find their ways out. So we will do everything while we are talking to other agencies. We are committed to ensuring that we reduce the wage bill through a genuine process that will not victimize anyone, that will help to give us a wage bill that is sustainable. But beyond that, we are doing everything possible to ensure that we have these arrears cleared. Just last recently, we met with a consultant whom we commissioned to try to work to see even if it’s to float bonds like the labour leaders met me the other time and suggested to help us clear the arrears and so on, that will be done. But honestly I feel pained, I’m not sleeping either because there is no way I can have my peace when I have a challenge like this affecting everybody in Benue State including my own family who are also on my neck to ensure that salaries are paid, that is how traumatised I am over the matter.