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Feeling the heat of COVID-19 pandemic

For workers in Delta State, these are difficult times. While the whole world battles the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, workers in the state are grappling with the revision of their salaries to the standard of the N18,000 minimum wage. That is in spite of the fact that the state government was among the first to implement the N30,000 Minimum Wage in 2019. DOMINIC ADEWOLE writes from Asaba

COVID-19 has dealt a heavy blow on Delta State. From the outward expression of grief by the 48,000 workforce in the state over their salary that was reduced as a result of the pandemic, it would not be foolhardy to say the state is in deep distress.
This has state
To this effect, the state government recently reviewed its 2020 budget downward by over N113 billion. This represented more than a 28 per cent cut of the original fiscal projections for the year.
As the pandemic battered the economy of Nigeria, it soon took a toll on the oil rich state and forced the government of the state to adopt interim fiscal measures to sustain public spending.
It was sorrow and tears two weeks ago for workers in the state as the government of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa reverted to the old salary structure of N18,000 new minimum wage as against the new structure of N30,000. Currently, workers on levels 07 to 17 are to suffer loss of revenue.
The decision was not singlehandedly taken by the governor. The organized labour in the state succumbed to pressure. It is now among the casualties.
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Chiedu Ebie, at the conference room of the Head of Service in Asaba, said the decision to review workers’ salary was reached at a consultative meeting with the organized Labour – the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and JNC, in the state.
He said: “The review was painful, difficult and inevitable. It is a sacrifice that was needed to keep the state moving. You will recall that for the same reason of dwindling revenues caused by the debilitating ripples of the pandemic, the state government recently reviewed its 2020 budget downward by over N113 billion, representing more than 28 per cent shrinkage of the original fiscal projections for the year.
“As we continue to grapple with the difficulties associated with servicing other existing and equally important obligations to citizens, we remain profoundly committed to infrastructural development across the state as can be seen from some of the projects that are still ongoing despite the pandemic and its suffocating impact on the economy.
“As a responsible government, the Okowa led administration is firmly committed to the welfare and interest of its workforce and citizens of the state. It has amply demonstrated this commitment by being one of the few states in the federation to have faithfully and fully implemented the new minimum wage which became operational in November, 2019.”
Despite that Ebie, supported by the Commissioner for Finance, Sir Fidelis Tilije and his counterpart in Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, said the proposed wage review was a painful and difficult decision but inevitable, considering the current circumstances in the state, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress(APC) and the Social Democratic Party(SDP) in Delta State cried foul.
The parties rejected the reversion of workers’ salary by the state government to tackle the woes of COVID-19 pandemic.
The Publicity Secretary of the APC, Barr Sylvester Imonina, said the slash was against the avowed bold idea of economic transformation of Okowa, and described the decision as not only diabolical but “demonic”.
He flayed the excuse that allocation to the state from the Federal Allocation Account Committee (FAAC) could not meet the salary payroll and infrastructural development in the state, wondering why his administration had been misappropriating the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state.
He described the excuse by organized labour in the state, which opted for salary slash to prevent the governor from retrenching workers as “lame and rubber-stamp”, and accused the governor of insensitivity to the plight of workers.
Dissatisfied with Imonina’s position, the Commissioner for Finance explained that the monthly savings of the state government cannot offset the wage bill of N7.7 billion monthly anymore, emphasizing that the state has a workforce of 48,000.
He noted that the drop in oil production from 2.3 million barrels per day to 1.4 million and the general decline in the internally generated revenue had negatively affected the economy of the state.
Aniagwu sued for the cooperation of all in handling the situation, even as the state Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Martin Bolum, said the decision was “one of the ways to keep the state afloat in this period of coronavirus pandemic.”
He explained how the state government proffered three options to labour, which included retrenchment of workers from redundant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), halting the deductions to cooperative for the next six months to meet the payment of the net salary and reversion to the old minimum wage structure.
He said leadership of the organized labour, led by the state chairman of NLC, Comrade Goodluck Ofobruku, eventually settled for the third option, after series of meetings, with the exemption of work ers on level 01 to 06.
While he recalled that Delta was one of the first states in the federation to implement the new minimum wage and told anybody that cared to listen that “the present salary review was for a while”, the state chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and chairman of the Forum of Nigeria SDP chairmen, Ambassador Oke Idawene (JP), earnestly appealed to Okowa to reconsider his stance on the salary cut.
He urged the state government to downsize the lined up capital projects in year 2020 budgetary provision instead of going through the rigour of cutting workers’ salary.
He said: “SDP is appealing to Governor Okowa to set aside his position on workers’ salary. Year 2020 is not the best of time for Nigerians. It has been survival of the fittest. Attention should be on stomach infrastructure and not salary cut. It is not a year of infrastructural development but sustainability. Life is greater than logic.”
He said the workers needed salary increase as a result of the sudden hardship inflicted on them by the outbreak of the disease rather than salary slash and condemned the use of derogatory remarks against those in positions of authority and their policies in order to score cheap popularity.
This came as Aniagwu kicked against what he described as “yellow-journalism” and urged media practitioners to adhere to the ethics of journalism, eschew speculative and fictitious reportage that are aimed at maligning top government functionaries.
He lamented that some bloggers took advantage of the privilege they have in the social media to begin to write about memos that were used for the purpose of governance in the last five years instead of focusing on the achievements of the such memos.
He decried the fake news that was skewed and trend on social media to deliberately assassinate the characters of some senior government officials in the state and stated that the administration of Governor Okowa was anchored on transparency, accountability and due process, maintaining that no government, in the world over, operated verbally without memos and other vital documents.
He said: “We have observed that there appears to be some hirelings, particularly in social media. There are individuals who have become tools and are always willing to write and communicate issues that are, by every sense of imagination, at variance with realities. We don’t run the government verbally.”
He warned detractors from progressing in error but allow the business of government to run bureaucratically, as every kobo spent would be accounted for.
However, there was happiness when the state government granted a tax-holiday to low income earners in the state.
They heaved a sigh of relief as the tax incentives captured corporate organizations and individual businesses in the state, including schools, hotels and other private investments such as, construction and marketing companies, and media (publishing) houses. Waivers were essentially approved for their late submission of returns, tax assessment and audit (outstanding) liabilities.
Aniagwu, supported by his counterparts in Economic Planning, Mr Barry Gbee, the Chairman of the Internal Revenue Board, Mr Monday Oyenmen, and Tilije, at the Government House, Asaba, said it was designed to meet low income earners half-way during this pandemic and take away pains that are associated with taxation.
The Implementing Officer (Oyenmen) said the tax waivers covered the 25 per cent interest on late submission of returns and the 10 per cent penalty for withholding government money unduly.
He said: “The idea is to ensure that businesses remain afloat and prevent loss of jobs. During this coronavirus pandemic, all outstanding liabilities of private establishments since 2011 to 2019 have been waived and their taxes will no longer attract any interest.”
The Head of Service, Mr. Reginald Bayoko, appealed to workers to see the development as a sacrifice by accepting the decision in good faith, affirming that any money deducted would not be refunded. He explained to workers that the usual sharing formula drastically dropped from what it used to be, thereby making payment of salaries to be cumbersome for the state.

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