Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State

By Jethro Ibileke

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Sunday announced an increased to the minimum wage earn by public workers in the state, from N300,000 to N40,000.

He made the announcement while delivering his speech at the 2022 Workers’ Day celebration.

Minimum wage currently earned by civil servants as pegged by the federal government is N30,000.

The Governor who said he would have loved to pay more, expressed hope that the little upward review would to cushion the impact of the inflation in the country.

According to him, “As we all know, the minimum of N30,000 can barely sustain a family, it will be immoral and mindless of us to continue to pretend that we do not know that our workers are suffering.

“The government of Edo State have now decided to review the minimum for Edo workers from N30,000 to N40,000 a month.

“Undoubtedly, Edo is the first state since the current outbreak of coronavirus to take this initiative.

“Even though we would have loved to pay more, we hope that this little adjustment would enable to cushion the impact of the inflation that we have faced. There is no doubt that the financial implications will be heavy and put another borden to government.

“But as a government, we are prepared to make the sacrifices, as that the workers can live a better life. Your welfare is our number one priority,” he said.

Obaseki who lamented the hardship the state pensioners are going through as a result of the high cost of food and other items in the country, said that his administration has tried to provide support for the state senior citizens.

“I am particularly interested about our senior citizens because they are one of the most vulnerable in our society, we took interest in payments of outstanding pensions to our pensioners in spite of the fact that these pensions were hold by previous administration.

“In view of the prevailing economy circumstances, I have now approved effective this May that the agreement we have reached with the Union of Pensioners that the harmonized amount would be pay from May 2022.

“Government is aware of the difficulties faced by the pensioners due to the non-payment of pension and gratuities to pensioners by previous government, this responsibility is huge and it will require substantial part of our resources to settle them.

“However, we are not a government that is known from running away from challenges, we will look for away to tackle this challenges.

Commenting on the economic hardship in country, the Governor urged civil servants to take advantage of opportunities offered by his administration in the agricultural sector to increase food production in the country.

In his address, the State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Odion Olaye, called on the federal government of put machinery in place to arrest the high rate of insecurity, instability in the economy, unemployment and hunger as it is capable of disintegrating the nation.

Olaye who speaks through the Secretary of his Union, Barry Imade, said that the organised labour strongly believes that when there are jobs opportunities in any economy, such economy will certainly experience growth in both human and infrastructural development.

He further stressed that the state-owned institutions are in a state of abandonment, adding that if nothing drastic is not done to revitalize them, they may soon go into extinction.

He also noted that the 65 and 35 per cent subvention policy has strangulated them financially and academically.