SENATE TO ROMOVE SALARY, WAGES FROM EXCLUSIVE LIST

By NBF News

BY Henry Umoru
UYO-AHEAD of the review of the 1999 constitution, the Senate said yesterday that there were plans to remove salary and wages from the exclusive list  to concurrent legislative list.

Speaking with journalists after inspecting projects by Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, Senate President David Mark said that the move will ensure that  states have the  freedom to negotiate for their own wages and salaries and attract good workers.

Mark who inspected the projects with other senators,  hailed the governor for his performance, just as he stressed  that  the development in Akwa Ibom State will engender healthy rivalry between the governors to take up the challenges of development in their states, even  as  he  regretted that the government at the centre has no control over what the governors do in terms of how they run their governments and even local governments.

He said: 'The next constitutional amendment will take a critical look at issues like wages and salary and remove it from exclusive legislative list and bring it to the concurrent list. So that if a state can attract good workers then they will go there and fix their salaries and wages. Everybody may not be getting the same amount of money but any money you get, if you have the courage to invest that money properly you will get result.

'All the states do not have the same terrain; there are some states where the cost of road construction is only one fifth of what you expend here. If you utilise that one fifth in your own state, people will see it.

'People don't need to go to the pages of newspapers and advertise what they  have done and what they have failed to do because the people will advertise it for them. I think the governors discuss various challenges and difficulties they face within the governors forum they should also be able to  tell themselves the truth in the forum there'.