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Gov Ortom rules out slash in Benue workers’ salaries

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The Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on Sunday ruled out the slash in workers’ salaries despite the state’s fiscal challenges.

The state pays the highest wages in the north and third in the country behind Lagos and Rivers States.

Ortom, who featured in Journalists’ Hangout, a Television Continental (TVC) interactive programme, lamented that the state’s wage bill contributes significantly to its fiscal challenges.

The governor said: “I prioritize the issue of payment of salaries because Benue State is a state where the economy is driven by peasant farmers and actively contributed by the civil service. So when you don’t pay salaries there is a problem.

“We have a large civil service because we do not have industries like other states. So the industry we have is the civil servants, hence you just have to do employment.

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“We do not want our youths to be redundant. We have the Benue State University, we have the University of Agriculture and other tertiary institutions and every year we have thousands of our children graduating and sometimes you will want to engage them.

“But many people may not be aware of this, Benue State is paying the highest salary in the north. In Nigeria, Benue State is paying the highest after Lagos and Rivers States.

“But we have decided that, because of the inflation and several other factors, you cannot talk about even reducing the salaries. You cannot do that because I go to the markets and I know what the cost of goods and services are in our country today. So there is no way I can talk about reducing the salaries of civil servants.”

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