Anambra State Governor, South East, Nigeria, Chukwuma Soludo, has announced a 10 percent salary increase for civil servants in the state.
Gatekeepers News reports that this was disclosed this in a statement by Soludo’s Spokesperson, Christian Aburime.
He quoted Soludo to have announced the increment at the celebration of the ‘2022 Public Service Day’.
The event held at the Anambra secretariat complex in Awka, the state capital.
The governor also announced N15,000 as Christmas bonus for civil servant.
“Given my own background as a worker, what we are not able to do for the working class, you must understand it is literally impossible,” he said.
“On the issue of Christmas rice, we reviewed how it’s done in the past and discovered that it is no longer tenable. I understand, in previous years, that past governments gave 25kg bags of rice to civil servants for Christmas.
“The state of Nigeria is bad. Everybody is complaining. Prices are rising very fast. I look at you and wonder how you cope.
“ Today, 50kg bag of rice costs over N40,000. That’s beyond the salary of a graduate in the public service. Something is not right!
“What we will do instead, between today and tomorrow, we will first of all make sure that our pensioners are taken care of, to demonstrate good faith.
“I wish we could do much more but today, you will receive an alert of N15,000 as Christmas bonus.
“The income is not increasing; government revenue is not increasing. We cannot print money. I understand what you feel and wish that our revenue will go up so we can multiply what comes to you in proportion to Nigeria’s inflation.
“The head of service made a request for releasing funds to process promotion. We have made the budget for next year and it has been signed. Any new thing not in the budget can’t be done.
“ I received a report a few days ago recommending minor adjustments in salaries. We will review it and see if it is feasible.
“From February to date, NNPC has not remitted a dime to the federation account and our state of finances means we can’t do everything at the same time but, we have to prioritise and that’s why we are collecting taxes.”
