Bayo Oluwasanmi
Everyone knows state governments are bankrupt and have been for many years. Given their financial conditions coupled with the governors’ working fever pitch to exacerbate the situation, state governments are facing a completely impossible and irremediable situation.
I’m not trying to scare anyone; I’m not a gloom-and-doomer. I’m also going to give you solutions to the purely financial problems – albeit with some good news and bad news. The good news is, there actually are solutions. The bad news is that there is a zero chance that my solutions are put into effect.
The problems are one hundred per cent caused by the governors, not by the recession, not by dwindling oil revenues, and not by slashed allocation from Abuja. There is destruction, violence, poverty, hunger, anger, disease, killings, kidnappings, abductions, and insecurity all over the States. The law has become paralyzed. There is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous.
I’m not a fan of former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzo Kalu. But I believe he spoke the minds and conviction of a majority of Nigerians about the prodigality and profligacy of state governors. He attributed the inability of governors to pay workers’ salaries to the propensity to squander public funds on personal luxury.
Speaking to State House correspondents in May while leading a delegation of investors in the power sector to a meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, he said some governors claim as much as N35 million as traveling allowance on one trip. “These governors have enough funds to work for their people because if you check, the money drawn as security votes is excessive. They should stop that,” says Kalu.
“Unless they stop drawing security votes,” Kalu warns, “they will not have enough funds to work with and most of them are living in absolute luxury. So it is impossible to continue living in this manner.”
The governors would want Nigerians to believe their states are broke. In a statewide broadcast, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State said, “I want to thank you for your patience, endurance so far in the face of this strike and our financial challenges … What I don’t have (money), I can’t give. Ekiti State is broke. His Ondo State counterpart, Governor Olusegun Mimiko addressing protesting workers over the nonpayment of salaries for months said: “So, we can no longer pay salaries, even when they are due…. buckle up for a financial crash, as the state is broke.”
The states are broke because of the astronomical salaries, security votes, benefits, and the illegal unrestricted access of the governors to plunder the treasury. Effective July 1, 2009, the Remuneration Package for Political, Public, and Judicial office holders prepared by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), a state governor earns an annual salary of N11,540,896.
The RMAFC package does not set a limit to the amount of estacode (allowance in foreign currencies for foreign trips) governors can take from state coffers. It also fails to specify the amount to be collected as Duty Tour Allowance for local trips which could be as high as N35 million on one trip. The provisions of the regulations simply said the estacode and Duty Tour Allowance would be provided upon request by governors. States also bear the medical expenses of governors. Any governor who successfully completes his tenure receives a N6,671,115 severance gratuity.
Another way the governors deplete state funds is by receiving double money from government. Twenty one governors receive double money from government.
The non-payment of salaries is taking a high toll on workers. In Igede-Ekiti, Ekiti State, a high school teacher who had not been paid for months stole a pot of amala (yam flour meal) from his neighbor in order to feed his two sons.
In Ibadan, Oyo State, Nasiru Lukman, a teacher at Saint Luke’s Grammar School, Molete, slumped while teaching because of hunger. The vice principal of the same school, Emmanuel Olajide, reportedly died as a result of hunger due to non-payment of four months’ salary. In Akure, Ondo State, a director general of a state agency had to borrow N500 to buy food. In Nasarawa State, all the medical doctors are on strike for non-payment of salaries. Doctors at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) have gone on strike. Same story in other states.
The situation should not be allowed to continue. It is time for the federal government to step in and put delinquent states into receivership. Receivership means a receiver appointed by the federal government, preferably an accountant who is trusted, regarded, and of high integrity, to oversee the finances of the delinquent state. The appointment of a receiver is an equitable remedy that allows the federal government takes over the financial aspect of governance of states in order to protect the livelihood and welfare of workers. By appointing a receiver, the federal government signals to the prodigal governors that it means business to restore the financial health of the state.
It means the federal government has crossed the line from “talks” into “action” and bans the governors from dipping their dirty hands into the treasury. For the governors, it means losing control of the treasury.
The neutral status of the receiver and credibility will facilitate the needed reforms. The receiver will prioritize the allocation and spending of funds on programs and projects in the state. The receiver will conduct an analysis of the financial management currently practiced by the governors as to how and why they can’t pay workers and put a new financial management in place.
Oluwasanmi wrote from Abeokuta, Ogun state.
