AKWA IBOM BEGINS PAYMENT OF N30, 000 MINIMUM WAGE

Gov. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State.

The Akwa Ibom government is to commence the payment of N30, 000 minimum wage to civil servants this January.

A statement from the head of the civil service in the state, Effiong Essien, Tuesday, said the state governor, Udom Emmanuel, has also approved the payment of one-month arrears of the minimum wage to the workers.

Mr Essien said the commencement of the payment is in fulfillment of Mr Emmanuel’s earlier assurances to workers on the issue.

The governor, Wednesday, took to Twitter to thank the workers “for their patience and understanding”. He urged the workers to reciprocate the government’s gesture with their dedication to duty “to fast-track the actualization of the completion agenda”.

In another development, Governor Emmanuel on Tuesday attended a meeting at the Qua Iboe Terminal, Ibeno, between Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Akwa Ibom government, and the host communities to the American oil company.

The essence of the meeting, the governor said, was to strengthen the relationship between Akwa Ibom government, Mobil, and the host communities.

“My visit here is a means of interaction, collaboration and partnership that we need one another. The government needs ExxonMobil, ExxonMobil also needs government; that’s the essence of the visit. It is that essence of collaboration that made this meeting possible,” Mr Emmanuel said at the meeting which was attended by the managing director of Mobil, Paul McGrath, the vice-chairman of Mobil, Udom Inoyo, and other top management staff of the company.

“We have decided that we will see a way to have that cordial working relationship between not just government and ExxonMobil including the host community as well and even the staff, so we look at the welfare of everybody.

“I want to use this opportunity to appreciate the executive and management of ExxonMobil led by the CEO, and also thank the host communities for their peaceful co-existence with ExxonMobil in the past three years; we expect a lot more,” the governor said.

Mr Emmanuel administration has been putting pressure on Mobil to relocate its headquarters from Lagos to Akwa Ibom. It is unclear if the issue was raised in the meeting.