Buhari asks governors how they sleep at night when they owe civil servants salary arrears

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has castigated Nigerian state governors for failing to pay workers' salaries asking them how they manage to sleep soundly in their beds at night when they owe their civil servants arrears.

Most of Nigeria's 36 states owe several months salary and pension arrears and in some cases, staff are owed up to a year's wages. On May 4 this year, the federal government released N243.795bn, being the second tranche of the Paris Club refund to states to enable them clear some of the salary arrears.

Yesterday, President Buhari met with a group of governors led by Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) chairman Abdul’Aziz Yari, the Zamfara State governor at State House in Abuja to review the matter. At the meeting, President Buhari said the plight of workers in the states needed attention urgently as many could barely survive.

President Buhari said: “How can anyone go to bed and sleep soundly when workers have not been paid their salaries for months. I actually wonder how the workers feed their families, pay their rent and even pay school fees for their children."

Governors who attended the meeting included Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo) Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Mohammed Abubakar (Bauchi) and Ebonyi deputy governor Kelechi Igwe. At the meeting, President Buhari noted that the challenge with regards the payment of salaries in states had taken a toll on the people and added that the federal government and state executives would need to work closely to ameliorate the problem.