NIGER State governor, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu, on Tuesday, raised the alarm that only five of the 36 states in the country can survive the financial crisis that the nation is likely to face in recent times.
Aliyu’s alarm came against the backdrop of the failure of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to distribute money to states at its meeting held in Enugu, a development he said would affect the payment of October salary in his state.
Aliyu who spoke at the opening of the 4th Congress and National Workshop on Cooperative Trade as a driver of job creation and employment generation in Minna, expressed fears that his promise to always pay salaries of civil servants on the 25th of every month is now being threatened.
To corroborate his position, Governor Aliyu called on the acting Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Hassan Abdullahi, to narrate what happened at the FAAC meeting of last week.
Hassan, narrating the incident, said: ‘we were in Enugu for three days. On the third day, they called us into a room and told us to go back because there is no money to share.”
Governor Aliyu who described the situation as very unfortunate advised that something urgent should be done to restore sanity in the Federation Account Allocation Committee.
The governor also urged his colleagues and private sector in the country to pursue aggressive wealth creation as a way of stopping the problem facing oil exploration and its sales, especially vandalism of oil pipeline.
He suggested that adoption of the cooperative society principle “is the best option to solve the problem because it has potentials to create many jobs.”
“We should emphasise rural development. We must make people understand how they can add value to themselves and the society.”
Dr Aliyu said the state had been able to pay all outstanding pensions and gratuities to retired workers, saying this was possible because of the take off of the contributory pension scheme in 2008.
Earlier, the President, Cooperative Federation of Nigeria, Alhaji Jibrin Bala Jos, had advocated the review of the 1950 law establishing cooperative movements in the country to give it more teeth and to ensure the organisation plays its role as expected.
At the event, the wife of the governor, Hajia Jumai Muazu Babangida Aliyu; the Commissioner for Investment and Cooperative, Alhaji Hassan Lawal Abdullahi and former commissioner in the state, Hajia Dije Bala, were honoured by the federation.
