Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed
By ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, has approved the payment of N70,000 as minimum wage to civil servants in the state.
The Head of Service, Yahuza Adamu Ningi, disclosed this while briefing journalists at the end of the State Executive Council meeting held on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Governor Mohammed, while speaking in his opening address at the commencement of the State Executive Council meeting held at the Exco Chamber of the Bauchi Government House said that the N70,000 minimum wage has already been captured in the budget and civil servants will begin enjoying it from their November salaries.
According to him, the increase in the minimum wage is to put food on the table of civil servants in the state.
He said: “Even though we are squeezed, I told the Head of Service and directed him to meet with labour unions and they have just concluded and it had already been captured in the budget that we are going to pay the minimum wage as from this November, inshallah. We have to do whatever we have to do to put food on the table for our people.”
The Governor expressed disagreement with a recent data issued by the National Bureau of Statistics which indicated that Bauchi State is the most expensive state to live in in the country.
He said that although he disagrees with the NBS data, however, he appreciates the Federal Government agency for coming up with the data.
“I want to tell my colleagues that I saw some statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics about Bauchi, Gombe and other northern states, on the poverty index that this is place where life is very difficult.
“Well, I may not agree with the National Bureau of Statistics, but I appreciate them because at least, they come up with data and it will serve as a wake up call.
“We thought we are doing well because we have brought security and our food security is also good, our people go to the farm; we have asked our civil servants to go to the farm and farm so that they can put food on the table. All of us are farmers and we are dolling out a lot of humanitarian support – that of the Federal Government and our own.
“And indeed, we are paying our salaries as and when due, and we are paying pension and what is outstanding is only the gratuity that we inherited which we are working very hard as a council to seek for resources to settle by the grace of God by 2025. But certainly, that is the kind of classification that we are having. It is very, very awful.
“I have directed the Commissioner for Planning to reach them (NBS) and find out what indices they used. Whatever they have used, we have to take it in good faith because we are federalists and we believe in institutions and we don’t think that they will just go ahead arbitrarily and subjectively do this kind of thing,” he said.
He challenged the commissioners that in view of the NBS data, they need to do more in delivering the dividends of democracy to the people.
“Certainly, we need to work very hard on our welfare issues, on issues that will impact on the common man and that is why some of these statistics are not meant to make you gloomy but we know that in agriculture, we may not be doing very well, in the SMEs, we may not be doing very well and other MDAs in the social sector.
“On our ease of doing business, if Gombe is number one in the country and it is adjudged to be very poor and life is very difficult, more difficult than Abuja, more difficult than Lagos, more difficult than Port Harcourt, then I’ll be wondering. But we believe in institutions, in federalism and experts must be respected for whatever vagaries or inadequacies they have manifested, but we have to do well,” he added.
