Barring any last minute change, five officers of the Enugu State Peoples Democratic Party at the ward level, who form the statutory ward delegates, will soon smile to the bank, following the approval for their salary increase to N100,000 each with immediate effect.
The affected ward executives are the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Secretary, Women Leader, and Youth Leader.
This is coming less than a year after the salaries of the entire ward executives were raised in May 2021, even as pensions and gratuities of retirees continued to pile up.
The PUNCH gathered, on Wednesday, that this may not be unconnected with the PDP primaries ahead of the 2023 general election, particularly the jostle for the state governorship seat.
It is recalled that the monthly salaries of party executives at the ward and local government levels were increased in May 2021 and it coincided with the initial rumours that the Electoral Act might make direct primary mandatory and only avenue for electing candidates. Ward party executives would have become very powerful had the direct primary eventually scaled through.
According to our sources, the salary of each ward Chairman was increased from N10,000 to N50,000 in May 2021. This represented a whooping 400 per cent increase despite that the primary school teachers and local government staff were yet to be paid the N30,000 minimum wage.
Deputy Chairman, Secretary, Youth Leader, and Women Leader, who were being paid N10,000 had their salaries increased to N30,000, representing about 200 per cent increment.
The rest of the ward executives, who received N6,000 initially also had their salaries increased to N20,000.
In the same vein, all local government executives of the party had their salaries raised from N10,000 to N50,000.
However, the increase only took effect in a few local governments in June, while full implementation across the 17 local governments started in August 2021.
The new expected increase, it was learnt, may not be unconnected with the provisions of Section 84 of the Electoral Act 2022, which bars political appointees of the president and governors from participating as delegates in primary elections.
This is considered a great blow as it reduces the number of assured votes for first term governors seeking a second term as well as second term governors, who want to install their preferred successors.
The request by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to have the Section amended has already been rejected by the Senate, as it could not progress to a second reading.
With government appointees ruled out, the move by Enugu State Government is seen in several quarters as a desperate move by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to secure the loyalty of statutory delegates at the ward level, as many forces could bring to bear in the election of non-statutory delegates.
Meanwhile, our source, who does not want his name in print, wondered why the Enugu State Government could approve of the misuse of government funds in that manner when the government was yet to meet its basic obligations.
“Clearly, this is all about 2023, especially about inducing the statutory delegates and have them in firm grip. The percentage of increase after nearly six years in power clearly shows that it is not for nothing. Otherwise, why only the five statutory delegates once the direct primary was made non-compulsory?
“So, who will pay the ward executives of other political parties in Enugu State?
“Besides, it breaks the heart to think that this is a state that is owing a stockpile of pensions and gratuities, a state that has refused to pay primary school teachers the minimum wage, a state that has failed woefully in common waste disposal, a state where virtually all Enugu township roads are in disrepair, while the Enugu city that used to be well-lit under Sullivan Chime’s administration is now in total darkness at night”, he lamented.
Efforts to get the reaction of the state government were unsuccessful as the Special Adviser to Governor Ugwuanyi on Information, who also oversees the Ministry of Information, Mr Steve Oruruo, didn’t pick his calls as the phone rang out.
