ECONOMY: Nigerians are dying of Hunger - Fayose tells Buhari

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has

raised the alarm that Nigeria is grinding to a halt with the current economic situation prevailing in the country.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, in Ado- Ekiti, yesterday, the governor noted that the issue at stake was grievous and not what people should play political propaganda with.

He lamented the situation where funds that accrue to all the tiers of government were no longer enough to pay workers’ salaries.

“This month’s statu­tory allocation is the worst in the history of our state. We got a net allocation of N1.4 billion at state level while the salary of workers is N2.6 billion monthly. At the local government level, 16 council areas got a little over N1 billion, while the wage bill there is over N2 billion monthly.

“Payment of salaries at both state and local govern­ment levels is impossible with such allocations. And government still has some basic needs to meet. The other time I said the Fed­eral Government should come to the open on the state of our national econ­omy, some people frowned at it.

“Now, a national paper has quoted the president as saying that Nigeria is broke and that it might be difficult to pay ministers that will soon come on board. It is vital that the Federal Government tell Nigerians the blueprint it has for the economy. The issue at stake is beyond politics.

“If the trend continues, in the next few months, all the tiers of government may not even be able to pay a month salary to workers if three statutory allocations are combined,” the governor said.

Appealing to the workers in the state to bear with the government, he said a meeting of all stakeholders in the sharing of monthly allocation would soon hold to chart the way forward.

“We have been transparent as far as the revenue coming to the purse of the state is concerned. Since we came on board, labour leaders and heads of state agencies have always met where we disclose how much comes in and the people will decide how to spend it.