By James Eze
The Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano has assured civil servants in the state that his administration would implement the national minimum wage of N30,000 per month.
Speaking at the celebration of Anambra State Civil Service Day, Governor Obiano reminded the workers that when Nigeria’s economy was in the firm grip of recession in 2015, he increased the salary of workers by 16% and assured them that he would not only pay the minimum wage but would also give them a salary increase if they helped him to double the internally generated revenue from N1.5bn to N3bn per month.
Governor Obiano emphasized that he did not need the workers to prompt him before giving them a raise at a most unlikely period in the economy when 30 states in the federation could not pay salaries to workers and urged the workers to throw their weight behind efforts to shore up the internally generated revenue of the state to N3bn.
He reminded Anambra workers that since the inception of his administration, he had kept all his promises to them. Said he; “all the things I promised you I have done almost all. Paying salaries promptly and other things we do in the state are done with money, so you must support us. Not when we do all these, some people will not come to work. If we find people who do not come to work, we will sack them without second thoughts.”
He further reminded the workers that once again, he had maintained the tradition of handing out bags of rice to them during Christmas. “You people have all received your Christmas rice, I hope? Let us help each other. Do not steal government funds because it is from there that we do the things you see in the state,” he said.
However, Governor Obiano frowned that in spite of his efforts to give workers a befitting, clean environment, some workers had continued in their old habit of defiling their immediate work environment.
“I have paid some visits to some places and I’m unhappy about meeting a dirty environment.
Five members of the state civil service were given awards of exemplary service and an undisclosed cash gift.
The governor said the gesture was to encourage hard work amongst civil servants.
