Farmer Governor Umar Bago to increase workers salary by 35 percent – insider source
By Akawu Ibrahim
There were strong indications that governor Mohammed Umaru Bago was willing and ready to implement the 35 percent wage increase for civil servants in Niger State to demonstrate his administration’s friendly dispositions to workers
An insider source who pleaded to be anonymous said indeed the governor expressed his desire to emulate the federal government’s May Day gesture to federal workers to civil servants in Niger State and even do more.
It would be recalled that president Bola Ahmed Tinubu had on May 1 announced percentage increases in wages of federal civil servants to commemorate the workers day.
At the event in Minna, the Niger State capital, the state Head of Service , Engr Abubakar Salisu who represented the governor had announced to the mammoth crowd of workers who thronged the Idris Kutigi International Conference Center to celebrate May Day, that the governor had called him and directed him to immediately commence the process of upward increase of civil servants salaries by 35 percent.
The announcement ignited thunderous applause from workers who commended the governor for the gesture, saying the news changed their bad mood and prayed that the implementation will be effective from May.
The source who spoke to Newsline online said the governor want to change the perception that he has not care much about workers welfare in the state.
“See, Bago is a welfarist. He derives absolute happiness in putting smiles to peoples faces. He wished the resources were abundantly enough, every sector in the state would have felt his impact not least the civil servants”, he said.
He said the governor wants to fix the infrastructure in the state, generate and tap wealth from the abundance of the state natural resources which was agriculture and put the state on strong and sound economic footing that will be a proud to all Nigerlites.
According to him “there’s no gainsaying that the governor meant very well for our state. He has turned the entire state into a construction site, something that is unprecedented since the creation of the state. He has also attracted multi billion dollars investment into the most critical sector of our economy which is agriculture. We have greater economic advantage in that aspect than any state in Nigeria. This is a chance for Nigerlites to rally behind him and support this history in the making,”.
The governor’s directive to the state Head of Service has attracted comments from civil servants who were excited with the development. Isah Adamu, a civil servant noted that it will help them in no small measure to cushion the difficulties the harsh economic reality put them into.
He said it was a long awaited intervention and prayed that officials charged with the task of implementing the directive will commence work in earnest. He thanked the governor for the gesture and said it will motivate them to do more.
