We may downsize or cut down on salaries- Nigerian Governors Forum

Governors under the umbrella body of the Nigerian Governors Forum say they may have to downsize the number of Civil Servants on their payroll or reduce the salaries of civil servants following the dwindling revenue generated from the Federal and state levels.

Rising from their meeting in Abuja yesterday November 18th, one of the governors, Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state who spoke with newsmen, said there was no way the country could continue with a situation where expenditure is more than income.

“We are faced with a situation where we either have to reduce cost through salary reduction or downsize. All these we don’t want to do but prefer to have a roundtable with the president, ministers, economists to look for means of getting out of this problem.”he said

On his part, the Chairman of the NGF and Niger state governor Abdul’aziz Yari said the falling price of oil has made it difficult to pay the N18,000 minimum wage

“The situation is no longer the same when we were asked to pay N18,000 minimum wage, when oil price was $126 per barrel and continued paying N18,000 minimum wage when the oil is $41 per barrel and the source of government expenditure is from oil, and we have not seen prospects in the oil industry in the near future. We are coming together in a roundtable with President Buhammadu Buhari and his team of ministers, technocrats, economic experts to see how we can tackle our situation.”he said