FCTA Pays N8bn Monthly Wage Bill, Says Wike

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has said the administration’s monthly wage bill is N8 billion and that the FCT’s budget for next year would take into account the concerns raised by various stakeholders and unions.

The minister who disclosed this yesterday when he received the executive members of the FCT chapter of the Association of Resident Doctors led by the president, Dr Rahman Olayinka, said that the current bill excludes the recent N35,000 wage increase for civil servants.

Wike, who responded to the challenges listed by the doctors, said the government may not be able to solve all their challenges but that it would do its best within the limits of its ability.

“People want the government to do things for them. The federal government has just increased salaries by 35,000. But where are the resources? Nobody is asking this question. People just want more money.

“In FCT the salary a month is N8bn. I am not talking about this increment now. Now, what are we dependent on? IGR. We must tell ourselves the simple truth.

“The current expenditure is such that we cannot fund infrastructure. When we were in Rivers, we were doing 70 percent for infrastructure and 30 for recurrent,” he said.

Earlier, Olayinka thanked the minister for attending to some of their challenges within weeks of assuming office.

He noted that the ‘Japa Syndrome’, a term used for brain drain, is leading to dearth of manpower in FCT’s health sector, and called for the purchase of more drugs for FCT hospitals.

“We still have shortage of manpower and it is causing a burnout of the doctors in the FCT. We would like you to consider the health sector when there is recruitment. We need doctors, pharmacists, nurses, lab technicians, etc. FCT is at the receiving end of the Japa syndrome.

“We are being owed arrears of hazard allowance. The previous administration promised to pay us in tranches and we are right now working with the administration to see how this can be done,” he said.