Newspaper review: Workers threaten governors over Buhari's pay directive

The newspaper review for Wednesday, November 29, leads with Nigeria governors response to news that President Buhari asked them to clear backlogs of salaries among other stories.

The Nation reports that a row broke out yesterday over the President’s directive to governors on workers’ salaries.

Governors said President Muhammadu Buhari did not say they should pay all arrears of salaries before Christmas.

After a meeting at the Presidential Villa on Monday, President Buhari directed Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele to release the balance of the Paris/London Club refund to states to enable them pay salaries.

Governors Rochas Okorocha (Imo) and Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna) briefed reporters on the outcome of the meeting.

Yesterday, the governors denied that the President said they should pay all arrears of workers’ salaries before Christmas.

Besides, a statement by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum secretariat said given the delay in the past between when the President gave a directive and the actual release of funds, the money might not get to the states before Christmas.

This might have set a stage for a battle between the governors and workers.

A Labour leader, Comrade Isa Aremu, said last night: Any governor who fails to pay workers before Christmas will be voted out.”

The statement said: “The governors had expressed profound gratitude to the President for his magnanimity in hearkening to the needs of the states and understanding with them towards helping to solve some of the intractable financial problems of governance, top among which is the lingering problem of workers’ salaries.

“They pledged, therefore, to rise up to the occasion collectively, as a mark of their respect for President Muhammadu Buhari and empathy for the workers by paying before Christmas, once the Finance, the Budget and Planning Ministries and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disburse the monies owed them, as instructed.”

The Nation newspaper

Vanguard reports that 36 governors under the umbrella of Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, yesterday, denied reports that President Muhammadu Buhari gave them an order to pay workers their salary arrears before Christmas.

Meanwhile, there was a discordant tune between the Chairman of Progressive Governors Forum, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, and Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State on whether President Buhari ordered those salary arrears should be paid before Christmas.

50 percent Paris Club balance, El-Rufai said the Paris Club refund was not enough to offset the salary arrears especially for states that were owing as there was no additional money to be given to such states apart from their fair share of the refund.

This came on a day that some governors said they were not owing salary arrears with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC insisting that some governors are owing. While Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta and Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa said they were not owing, Governor Rauf Aregbesola said he was not paying workers half salary and had been paying regularly what the state government agreed with workers.

Vanguard Newspaper

The Guardian reports that millions of Nigerians risk health and economic consequences following Federal Government’s failure to meet deadline on importation of high sulphur (dirty) fuels.A communiqué jointly issued by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Economic Communities of West Africa States (ECOWAS) Commission, and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) noted that switching to low-sulphur diesel and use of cleaner vehicles would result in annual savings in health costs of about $6 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa.

At the ministerial meeting on promoting low sulphur fuel held in Abuja last year, governments in the ECOWAS sub-region had agreed that all imported fuel should meet 50ppm max, in line with the African Refineries Association (ARA) -AFRI4 specification by July 1, 2017.

Already, neighbouring countries like Ghana, which also signified interest in reversing the trend, has since raised its standards and begun importation of cleaner products.

In late 2016, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire agreed to ban importation of Europe’s dirty fuel, limiting sulphur from 3,000 parts per millions to 50ppm.

But almost a year after, Nigeria has continued to import the commodity to the detriment of its consumers, despite the release of new guidelines on petroleum products by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

Unless removed, sulphur, a natural component of crude oil, is retained in Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and diesel. Its presence in petroleum products impairs the effectiveness of emission control systems and contributes to air pollution. The toxic substances in the fuel increase incidences of bronchitis, asthma and other respiratory tract problems, said Consultant Public Health Physician/Epidemiologist and former Chief Medical Director, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Prof. Akin Osibogun.

The Guardian newspaper

The Punch reports that the embattled former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, says he helped President Muhammadu Buhari recover N1.3tn in January.

Maina, who is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, said this in a video sent to Channels Television.

He further claimed that while he was out of the country, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), paid him a visit during which he (Maina) told Malami about the N1.3tn.

“When this government came in, the President (Buhari Muhammadu) gave the nod that ‘go and sit down with Maina, I’ve given you the approval.’

“They sat down with me after the security agencies had cleared me. Nobody has ever taken me to court in Nigeria, I want Nigerians to know; I have never been taken to any court of law. I have sued all the security agencies that they are talking about and I have won, I have four court judgments.”

Maina said, “As soon as this current government decided to sit with me, after the meeting, I told them that I would not allow them to return to Nigeria without giving them a gift. I told them I will give them something and the Minister of Justice (Malami) laughed and he asked what the gift was.

“I gave him a document and said go here and here; that there is N1.3tn which they want to steal because they have been stealing every year. He was shocked and said it wasn’t possible but I told him that sir, with all due respect, could you try what I said?

The Punch newspaper

This day reports that the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, Tuesday accused anti-graft agencies of looting funds and property recovered from corrupt persons and said this untoward act was the major reason why foreign countries harbouring monies stolen from Nigeria had refused to return them to the country.

“The National Assembly has been strident about the opacity shrouding the management of recovered funds, which in many cases get re-looted by the agencies that investigated and recovered them,” he said while declaring open the Strategic Retreat on Tracking the Progress of Anti-corruption Bills in the National Assembly.

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According to the Senate president, the foreign countries harbouring funds looted from Nigeria are reluctant to return such monies, over fears that the returned assets may be mismanaged.

He said: “Nigeria is finding it difficult to convince other nations to return funds looted from our treasury. This is because of the other nations’ exasperation over the management of returned assets. Only recently, Mr. President inaugurated a committee to audit all assets recovered by various government agencies.”

Saraki cited a motion last week, seeking to expand the scope of the investigation of the scandal of the re-instatement and return to the civil service of former Chairman of the Pension Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, to include investigations of allegations that recovered properties had been re-looted by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“An ad hoc committee of the Senate, which is investigating some administrative infractions in the Executive, has discovered that many properties recovered from a fugitive from the law, have not been accounted for by the investigating agency,” Saraki said.