Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has stated that the review of the minimum wage can only be sustained when the revenue sharing formula of the country is reviewed.
He spoke in an interview with Channels Television Roadmap 2019.
“I will never oppose the upward review of minimum wage for workers. But the revenue sharing formula must be reviewed. Assuming a state like Zamfara gets N3billion monthly and their monthly wage bill is N4billion, then the state will not survive. Labour should understand the situation.
“You cannot talk of sustainable new minimum wage when you have not reviewed the revenue sharing formula. More of the money should be moved from the Federal Government to the states that bear the burden of governance.
“If there is no review of the revenue sharing formula, then we are not being fair”, he said.
On his quest for a second term, Wike noted that he has made landmark achievements in the area of roads, health, education, justice sector, empowerment and special projects, which need consolidation for the rapid growth of the state.
He said other than the hope that federal might will be available for planned rigging in 2019, there is no party that would have fielded a candidate in Rivers State. He however said that their plot will fail as it did during the rerun elections.
The governor stated that he is a target of INEC as far as the 2019 General elections are concerned
“I am a target of INEC, but I am not disturbed. But it will be difficult for them. The security agencies are even worse than INEC. We are prepared for them”, he said.
He stated that INEC has not done enough to convince Nigerians that it will conduct free and fair elections, when they blatantly rigged Osun and Ekiti Elections during collation.
“If you followed the Osun Governorship Election, you will know that it was rigged. Even INEC knows that the election was a sham. They ought to have declared Adeleke”, he said.
On the EFCC, the governor noted that fighting corruption outside the ambit of the law is corruption.
Governor Wike said that EFCC went to the Court of Appeal to secure a leave to appeal the 2007 judgment which barred it from investigating or interfering with the accounts of the Rivers State Government, but that the Supreme Court has issued a State of Execution on the matter.
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