Bugged down by huge debts, months of unpaid salaries and the exhaustion of federal government bailout funds, state governors are at the moment caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. In the face of dwindling oil revenue and the attendant drop in federal allocation to the states, embattled state chief executives are considering a reduction in their workforce or pay cut for workers. The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC has however warned that none of the two options will be accepted by the labour movement.
From the states in the South West, South South, South East, to those in the North West, North East and North Central, the story is the same. The fact remains that the various state governments still owe and have even piled a month or two more salary debts on the existing ones and may therefore be going back to Aso Villa with begging bowls.
The situation has crippled development and businesses in the states, thus generating angst and despair among the populace including public servants and even members of the non-informal sector who depend on their patronage.
The financial strait of the state governments might have also been responsible for a number of abandoned projects in the states, almost making nonsense of the massive achievements some of the regimes recorded earlier. (The Sun)