NUPENG urges states to stop depending on bailout funds

The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has urged state governments to discontinue their reliance on the Federal Government’s bailout funds as a source for the payment of workers’ salaries.

The union’s South-West Chairman, Mr Tokunbo Korodo, gave the advice in Lagos at the weekend.

In 2015, state governments received N713.7billion as bailout funds from the President Buhari led federal government to defray their backlog of salaries.

Korodo urged the state governments with huge salary arrears to be innovative in finding new ways to generate revenue internally, without waiting for monthly allocations from the federation account.

He regretted that most state governments in the country had too many aides that were a big drain on their resources and advised them to downsize, to save costs.

“Most of the Governors have about 20 Commissioners and over 42 Special Advisers, besides another large number of associates from which they have appointed the heads of various boards and agencies in the state.”

“Governors from the 27 state governments that cannot pay the monthly salaries of their workers should look inwards to find new ways of making money to settle their wage bills.”

Korodo suggested the revitalization of agriculture as a credible alternative to the current over-dependence of such states on revenues from the federation account.

He also advised such governors to block all existing leakages in revenue generation in their states.