Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, says his administration is working to increase the salaries of public workers in the state civil service.
Sanwo-Olu made this known on Tuesday while addressing the workers at the state secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja.
“I have looked around and I know that as a country, there is pressure. I know that, as a country, there is a high level of inflation.
At our cabinet meeting, I instructed the head of service office and the ministry of staff, training, and pensions to start work on how we are going to increase the entire salary of our public servants,” the governor said.
“We are capable of doing this. Lagos leads while others follow in Nigeria. In salary increment, we are leading again.
“We are going to reflect the popular ‘Buga’ slogan in the payment of salaries. We are not going to wait for the Federal Government’s minimum wage increase.
“We have commenced the process. I can assure that by early next year it will be ready for implementation.
“We don’t want to wait for workers’ unions to hold us to ransom before we do the needful.”
Giving the insights on what his government is doing over the issue of pensions,the governor said all the outstanding backlogs of pension will be sorted out this week.
“I want to reassure you that all the few outstanding backlogs of pensions will be sorted out this week and payment by the end of October.
“We are the highest and best paying in pensions in Nigeria.
“We are clearing the entire backlog of pensions; it’s a liability we met on ground.”
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, had earlier revealed that government is looking at increasing the 30,000 minimum wage in the light of inflation raving the world.
He said this during the Nigeria Labour Congress public presentation titled, “Contemporary history of working-class struggle” in Abuja.
Ngige added that, the adjustment had become important to reflect what was happening globally.