Workers salaries: Mixed signals from AGF office on Buhari's directive

The euphoria that greeted the good news that Nigeria's Federal Government workers would paid salaries on the 25th of every month might turn out a mirage.

This because Ahmed Idris, Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), has  said that the  directive, which was issued by President Muhammadu Buhari, is not implementable  because there was no cash to pay on that date every month.

This would come as a surprise to Federal Government workers as it was for Idris, who disclosed this on Wednesday to journalists in Abuja.

He said, paying salary on the 25th of every month would “be given a test, I believe, by this month.”

“There is a standing instruction of Mr. President to pay salary on or before the 24th or 25th of every month and we will try as much as possible to comply and to abide by that.

“We are taking a step further to make a provision whereby we can accommodate salary payments even before FAAC.

“We will go to seek for necessary approval of our political masters to make sure that at least salary and other statutory payments are made even before FAAC.

“Because we can project how much they are and therefore we can prepare and hit the ground running to make them realisable and actualised.

“Even where we delay FAAC, we can still pay salary,” he said.

However, in a swift about-face, a statement by Mrs Kene Offie, Deputy Director of Press, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, said: “There is an instruction from Mr. President that workers be paid on or before 24 or 25, but compliance has been hampered by the limited resources available to government, which can only be determined after the monthly FAAC (Federation Account Allocation Committee) meeting.”

-Emmanuel Ikechukwu