Economy: Nigeria grinding to halt- Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has raised the alarm that Nigeria is grinding to a halt with the current economic situation prevailing in the country. In a press release yesterday by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, in Ado-Ekiti, the governor noted that the issue at stake was grievous and not what people should play political propaganda with. He lamented the situation whereby what accrues to all the tiers of government was not even enough to pay workers' salaries. "The month's statutory allocation is the worst in the history of our state. We got a net allocation of N1.4 billion at state level while the salary of workers is N2.6 billion monthly. At the local government level, the 16 council areas got a little over N1 billion, while the wage bill there is over N2 billion monthly. "Payment of salaries at both state and local government levels is impossible with such allocations. And government still have some basic needs to meet. The other time I said the Federal Government should come to the open on the state of our national economy, some people frowned at it. "Now, a national paper has quoted the President as saying that Nigeria is broke and that it might be difficult to pay ministers that will soon come on board. It is vital that the Federal Government tells Nigerians the blueprint it has for the economy. The issue at stake is beyond sheer politics. "If the trend continues, in the next few months, all the tiers of government may not even be able to pay a month salary to workers if three statutory allocations are combined," the governor said. While appealing to the workers in the state to bear with the government, he said a meeting of all stakeholders in the sharing of monthly allocation would soon hold to chart the way forward. "We have been transparent as far as the revenue coming to the purse of the state is concerned. Since we came on board, labour leaders and heads of state agencies have always met where we disclose how much comes in and the people will decide how to spend it. However, I am assuring the people of the state that we will try our best possible and never let them down,"Fayose added.