By year-end, if you wish a Lagos State civil servant ‘a merry Christmas and happy new year in advance’, it would have meaning to him or her. Indeed, he or she is likely to respond with a genuine ‘same to you’, a thing that you too would not hesitate to claim, in the hope that the sudden fortune that has smiled on the Lagos State civil servants with the salary increase just announced by the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, would also be your portion. Coming at this point in time when things are tough for most state governments (as a matter of fact, many of them are barely struggling to pay the current minimum wage while others are in months of arrears), the salary increase is most salutary.
Normally, many Nigerians respond to such ‘merry Christmas and happy new year’ grudgingly because they know that usually there is nothing merry or happy in the physical things they see and experience, or even expect at such periods. If it is not a time to think about fuel subsidy withdrawal leading to fuel price increase or scarcity at Yuletide, thus compounding the woes of people travelling home to celebrate the season with their loved ones, it would be a time to be apprehensive about what the economy holds in stock for them in the new year. So, it is almost always about one having one’s heart in one’s mouth whenever the year is coming to an end. That is usually the Nigerian experience.
I guess this must have been the expectation even this year for civil servants in the state until Governor Sanwo-Olu announced his government’s intention to cushion the effects of the inclement national economy on the workers by reviewing their salaries upwards. I always talk of the national economy instead of the global economic downturn, unlike many commentators who allude to the Russia/Ukraine war when talking about the economic challenges we are witnessing because, for us, we had commenced national ‘fasting’ before the global ‘fasting’ started. This was my position when some people, particularly public officials were blaming our woes on the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). We all know as a fact that neither COVID-19 nor Russia/Ukraine war could be held responsible for our pathetic situation. These are very recent developments. We have always been having economic crisis long before the advent of these unfortunate incidents. They only aggravated our own economic challenges. So, it is unfair to blame our plight solely on them.
But that was a necessary digression.
Governor Sanwo-Olu lifted the workers’ spirit on Tuesday, when he paid a working visit to the State Secretariat, Alausa, the seat of the state government. In a seemingly surprising move, the governor told the workers his government’s plan to increase their salaries.
In case the workers have forgotten, the governor reminded them that the state government is a trailblazer of sort in such matters:
“You were always the first, you would remember that at that time we were the first to start paying the minimum wage of N18,000, way back in 2010. You would remember during my time, we started the pension commission. It was the first in the whole country. Even at that time, we started the first enhanced training.” He proved that he was indeed one of them by the way he spoke glowingly about the over 100,000-strong public servants in the state. He told the workers what they wanted to hear. “I know there is inflation in the country, the cost of living is high. Last month, I instructed that we start work on how to increase the salary of the entire workforce. I want to assure you that we will do that. We won’t wait for Federal Government; we don’t want the union to come and hold us to ransom. We will work it out as soon as possible.”
This is quite thoughtful of the governor. I have always believed that we have been living a lie given what we pay as salaries in the country generally. It is only in a few cases that people get living wage, and this is usually in the private sector and select government establishments. The truth of the matter is that salaries paid many Nigerian workers can never take them home. That is one of the reasons some of them pilfer public funds if they have access to some. But what baffles me is that the politicians who usually hesitate to pay living minimum wage are the very ones who are unsparing when it comes to their own comfort.
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Before regular readers of my column take me up on what seems support for salary increase in this case, whereas my position has always been that workers agitate for good governance, nothing has changed concerning that. The only thing is that I say that with respect to the central labour movement in its unending wars for wage increase. The Lagos situation is however a different ballgame. It involves a state government which is seeking a way of assuaging the sufferings of its workers in a milieu that is far beyond its control. The state government is not the one that created the economic crisis and it cannot solve it all alone. It has only done its best in the circumstance.
We must commend Sanwo-Olu for being proactive in prioritising workers’ welfare. The fact of the matter is that some other governors would have done things differently if in Sanwo-Olu’s shoes. So, it is not just a question of the money being available, it is also a question of priorities. The governor has through his announcement on Tuesday demonstrated that in truth, he is himself a product of the system and so, he knows where the shoes pinch. He has been an active participant in the politics of the state since 2003 when he served as special adviser on corporate matters to the then deputy governor, Femi Pedro. He later served as acting commissioner for economic planning and budget until 2007 when he was made commissioner for commerce and industry by the then Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He later became commissioner for establishments, training and pensions. This is aside his serving in some of the state’s agencies, including Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) where he was the managing director/chief executive officer. He was also the pioneer board chairman of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund. It was under his directives that LAGBUS System and the control and command centre in Alausa, Ikeja, were established. So, we can see that Sanwo-Olu has not only been in the system for long, he has remained an active participant. He is therefore qualified to know what the civil servants’ challenges are.
The fact of the matter is that a lot has happened, albeit in the negative sense, between 2015 that President Muhammadu Buhari became president and now. Inflation has been biting harder, with prices of virtually everything one can imagine hitting the rooftops. Nigerians literally pay with their blood for things, from basic food items to electronics, building materials, vehicles, etc. One or two examples of the inflationary trends since 2015 will do: rice, a staple in the country sold for about N11,000 in 2015. Today, it is about N37,000 per bag. In 2015, a bottle of palm oil or groundnut oil could be purchased for N200 each; today, it goes for between N800 and N1,000. The same applies to fuel, whether petrol or particularly diesel that is key to industrial production in the country because of epileptic power supply.
What this implies is that the so-called minimum wage of N30,000 is insufficient for an average family of six, especially in cosmopolitan Lagos, unless they find alternative means of making money. How can an average civil servant with his wife and at least four children pay rent, buy food, settle school fees, etc. with a paltry N30,000? The poor pay eventually tells on their productivity. Those of them who engage in other activities to make ends meet have no choice but do so even during official hours, marketing their wares to their colleagues.
And, if Sanwo-Olu is giving cars to certain categories of people, he is also doing that because he knows the state government would benefit in return. Cars have become gold in the country. Even Tokunbo (second-hand) cars are now expensive. The cost of brand new cars in 2015 will not buy some Tokunbo cars today. So, where will civil servants, even as directors, get cars without institutional support?
Some people may read political meaning into what the governor has done. For me, that is immaterial. Even if it had political undertone, what is the ultimate goal? If it is to better the lives of the people, that, for me counts for a lot. This is one of the things that politics should do. Politicians must constantly be on their toes if the society they are serving is ever to progress. Something must be nudging them to do more for such society to make progress.
But Lagos State can confidently announce salary increase at this time because of the way the state has been husbanding its resources. Indeed, the financial reengineering started by the Tinubu administration in 1999 is one of the things working for the state. That administration commenced the transformational reform of the state’s internal revenue process within the ambit of the law. In 1999 when he took over as governor, the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) was a paltry N600 million monthly. As at December, last year, it had jumped to N45billion monthly, a 7,400 per cent leap, an indication that succeeding administrations have been building on the legacy. States may not be equally endowed, but some state governments can do better than they are currently doing in terms of IGR if only they are ready to put on their thinking caps rather than be satisfied with going to Abuja for money all the time.
Even the mischievous would readily admit that Lagos too has witnessed tremendous progress between 1999 and now; an indication that the resources are being deployed appropriately. Of course there is always room for improvement, we can see evidence of the continual rise in IGR in the state on provision of infrastructure and other essential services.
Where the achievements seem to be obscure,it is because the infrastructure are being overstretched. Lagos is harbouring about 25 million people since little or no governance is going on in many other parts of the country. If many governors spend their resources wisely, fewer people would be less desperate to come and settle in Lagos.
Once again, I commend the government for the salary increase. Although we do not know yet by what percentage this would be, I want to believe it would be worth it after all, with the initiative coming from the government itself. However, the state government has to work on the pension of its workers. Payment can still be fast- tracked to reduce the pains that retirees experience in the course of getting their pension. Its beauty is for the original owner to reap the fruits of his or her labour.
Sanwo-Olu’s largesse may not completely take away the pains of inflation, it will at least lessen it. The least one can say is advise the civil servants that to whom much is given, much is expected. They should reciprocate the gesture through improved service delivery.