Unpaid workers salary is a disgrace-Buhari

Kunle Awosiyan |

President Muhammadu Buhari has described the failure of some state governments to pay workers’ salaries as a disgrace to the country.

He said this at his first meeting with State House Correspondents, adding, “This is such a disgrace for Nigeria. I think Nigeria should be in a position to at least pay its workers.”

The president lamented that he inherited a country with virtually an empty treasury from former President Goodluck Jonathan.

“It disgraceful for state and federal workers not to be paid their salaries as and when due.This bad management that we find ourselves in, we really need your help to protect us from people before they march on us,” he said.

Buhari said it was not by accident that he appointed one of the best journalists in the country, Femi Adesina, as his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity.

He said he brought Adesina so that he could consistently defend him against his co-journalists.

The President said,   “It is not by accident that I got one of your best   colleagues (to be the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity); one of the 15 aides I had to get clearance from the Senate.

“He is one of the best that I can have as special advisers. I brought one of the best of you so that he can consistently defend me against you.

“Whether my job is a difficult or easy one; it is up to him but I am here to thank you in advance for what good and ill you are going to do to me,” he said.

The President expressed the hope that what happened under former President Goodluck Jonathan when a State House correspondent was expelled would not happen under his watch.

The President added that the culture of assessing government’s performance in the first 100 days in office was putting pressure on him considering   the mismanaged economy he inherited.