Salaries: LP opposes APC governors’ plea for bailout

The Labour Party, LP, has opposed plea made by All Progressive Congress, APC, governors to the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhar, retd, to help them to pay salaries owed to workers in their various states when he assumed office after May 29.

The National Chairman of the party Alhaji Abdukadir Abdulsalam, while reacting to the appeal in Abuja, warned the in-coming administration against granting any special bailout to the governors.

It would be recalled that some governor and governor-elect mainly of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had Tuesday met Buhari in Abuja complaining about the economic downtown and difficulties experienced in paying salaries of workers and meeting other state financial commitments.

Abdulsalam explained that the Labour Party was opposed to the federal government giving any special allowance to pay salaries because the states failed in their responsibility to pay the salaries due to mismanagement and corruption on the parts of the governors.

According to him, “President-elect should not give any kobo in the name of special bailout or intervention to states to pay salaries when he takes over.

“It is unfortunate and uncalled for that governors most of whom operate in their states flamboyantly and mismanage their states resources who say they cannot pay salaries and asking the President-elect to bail them out. Is it the same people calling for change that are asking to be helped to pay salaries?, he queried.

“They are only trying to cover-up for their god-fathers and where did they want the incoming administration to be getting the money to support them? Are they saying the federal government should take over the payment of their salaries?

“Buhari should not agree to their subtle threat or request. If they don’t want to be prudent on their state resources, they should be made to stop the mismanagement of the resources and allocations given to them by the federal government.”

Abdulsalam advised Gen. Buhari to pressurise the governors to prioritize getting the states to work out legal means of getting internally generated revenues and to explore the natural resources in their states.