The Governor of Kwara State, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, has said that his administration will first clear salaries and pensions backlog before implementing the N30,000 new minimum wage.
The Governor stated this when he addressed the civil servants in the state where he stressed that his administration hoped to end the salary backlog.
Abdulrazaq said his government will discuss with workers on best ways to address wage-related issues.
According to him, “The problems are a lot, we can’t resolve them in one, two, three, four months, but we need to start resolving them.
“Like the issues of salary; it has been brought to my attention that the May salary is still outstanding. That will be paid immediately.
“You have to remember that some people are on half salary and they have not been paid. Some people have been promoted a few years ago and are still on the old salary scale.”
The Governor further explained that even after paying, the state cannot afford to pile a backlog of salaries.
“The truth is that we want to get to a stage where there is no backlog of salaries and pension, that’s where we are heading to now.
“We need to clear this before coming to the issue of the minimum wage, which we also need to sit down and discuss because we cannot agree to pay and start backlog again.
“The intention is to pay; we got to the transition program and a lot of issues we have seen.”