Gombe State governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, has made a surprising ‘U-turn’ on his earlier promise to pay civil servants the new minimum wage.
He earlier pledged that he would implement the new minimum wage even if it is up to N300,000.
“If there is a new wage we can pay a worker even if it is up to N300,000. It is not a big deal. But the worker too should reciprocate by discharging his duties diligently. It is obligatory. If he refuses to be diligent, then no problem. We will not only sack him but we will sue him. The court will jail him because he has cheated the public he was employed to serve.”, he once said.
However, yesterday, while addressing groups ahead of the planned nationwide protest, the governor stated that it is not feasible for Gombe State government to pay even the N70,000 new national minimum wage approved by President Bola Tinubu.
This sudden reversal comes as a shock, given the governor’s earlier emphasis and promise to pay a higher wage.
But the governor now claims that the state’s financial constraints make it impossible to implement the new national minimum wage of N70,000, let alone the N300,000 wage he previously mentioned.
