All Progressives Congress (APC) governors have been asked to champion the implementation of the new minimum wage.
Party’s National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole, stated this at a parley of Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) and the Federal Government in Jos, Plateau State on Monday.
President Muhammadu Buhari urged the governors to raise the tempo of the anti-graft battle in their domains.
It was the Third FGN-PGF policy synergy parley at the Government House, Little Rayfield, Jos.
Oshiomhole reminded the governors that “As the ruling party, it is good that the states under the APC should take the lead in the payment of the new salary structure to prove that it is a welfare party.”
In a goodwill message at the opening of the meeting, Oshiomhole said: “I want all the APC states to be the first to implement the new minimum wage, so that when workers start making trouble in some states as a result of non-payment of the minimum wage, APC states will not be affected.
“It is my desire that APC governors make the payment of the new minimum wage as a priority as a demonstration of our progressiveness and welfarist”
The APC chair also urged the governors to give special attention to education, adding that the PGF should work with the party and its leadership in the interests of Nigerians.
“I say this because we are talking of synergy of policies as a theme of this meeting. It is with the synergy between APC governors and APC as a party that make ordinary Nigerians feel impacts of government the more,” Oshiomhole said.
The President, who was represented by the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, told the governors to double up on the anti-graft fight to make the crusade holistic and all-encompassing.
According to him, a synergy between the Federal Government and APC governors will make the gains of the collaboration more impactfull.
He said: “I must at this point renew my call on the state governments to double their support in the anti-corruption battle as the gains of our collaboration continued to face the danger of annihilation, if corruption persist at subnational levels.
“Going forward, we must all work towards building a socially cohesive society in which the resources of the country work for all. We will continue to apply public funds in such a way that no section of the country or segment of the population will suffer social exclusion.”
On the issue of security, the President said: “You are all aware that insecurity has remained a big challenge for us all. We remain determined to subdue this challenge and secure the country more than ever before.
“While the protection of lives and properties is a primary responsibility of government, it is also incumbent on the citizens to share in this responsibility, as security is a collective responsibility.”
He renewed his administration’s commitment to improving the welfare of Nigerians, saying that the rescue of the economy from recession through a concerted effort underscored the commitment.
Buhari said: “That is why this administration has remained justifiably proud of the singular achievement of bringing our economy back on track from recession and place it on the part of growth and competitiveness in the last four years; especially, in the areas of human capital development, infrastructure development and prosperity.
“Nigeria is on a renewed growth trajectory. Accordingly, we will do everything within our powers to sustain the current economic recovery efforts. We will continue to reinforce our micro-economic policies to achieve sustainable economic stability and growth.
“We will also continue to ensure that the growth come along with more jobs and a fair and just distribution of the national wealth. Your continued cooperation in this regard is very vital.”
Lauding the governors for their support so far, he said: “This administration has come this far because of the unfaltering support and goodwill of Your Excellences. I’m confident that together, we would achieve our objective of building a united and prosperous Nigeria.”
President Buhari also expressed appreciation to all Nigerians for giving him a second mandate and building confidence on APC.
In their remarks, PGF Chairman Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu and Northern Governors Forum (NGF) Chairman Simon Lalong said the meeting was scheduled to focus on policy synergy and peer review for sustainable growth across the country.
Bagudu said the ruling party remained focused and progressive in its leadership of the country.
He told reporters at the end of the technical session that the meeting used as an opportunity to review progress it has made since 2015 when the party came to power.
He said: “We look some particular sectors of the economy to see what we have achieved there and the challenges in those sectors. It was an opportunity for governors to discuss and relay their development experiences with his colleagues with aim of learning from one another.
Progressive Governors will continue to dialogue from time to time in order to ensure the dividends of democracy we promised are well delivered.
“The most important of aspect of the third meeting is to engender synergy between the federal and state governments in terms of policy formulation and implementation so as to avoid unnecessary duplication and waste of scarce resources.
“The essence of all these is to ensure we remain focused as a ruling party in our policies and programme, we have unity of purpose between the federal government and the governors in delivering social services to our people.
“This is more of self-appraisal and we realised that so far, the APC has not derailed in its action.”
