December in Nigeria arrives quietly at first. The air changes before the announcements do. Markets swell earlier than usual, civil servants begin to count weeks instead of days, and government offices hum with rumours that rarely find their way into official memos. It is in this space between expectation and confirmation that the idea of the thirteenth month lives. Not as policy first, but as hope. An extra salary not written into law yet deeply written into public consciousness.
Across state secretariats, the question is never asked directly. It passes through glances, casual greetings, and low voiced conversations in corridors. Has it been approved? Will it come this year? Who is paying? Who is not?. The thirteenth month has become a quiet measure of governance, one that is not debated during campaigns but remembered vividly at year end. It is where fiscal discipline meets human pressure, and where political messaging often disguises itself as generosity.
In recent years, inflation has stripped December of its softness. Food prices climb as predictably as decorations appear. Transport costs spike. Family obligations multiply. Against this backdrop, the extra month of pay has grown from festive relief into a survival mechanism for thousands of households. It no longer feels like a bonus. It feels like a missing piece of a broken calendar.
This is the story of how five governors across different regions approved that extra month, not as a coordinated policy, not as a national programme, but as individual decisions shaped by revenue confidence, political identity, and the invisible weight of public expectation.
The Quiet Continuity of Oyo State
In Oyo State, the thirteenth month no longer arrives as a surprise. It enters quietly, almost like a returning relative whose seat is already prepared. Since 2019, the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde has made the extra salary an annual feature, not loudly celebrated, but consistently delivered. By 2025, it had become less of an announcement and more of a confirmation.
Civil servants in Ibadan did not need social media posts to know it was coming. The pattern had taught them what to expect. When continuity replaces uncertainty, behaviour changes. Workers plan differently. Debts are structured differently. December stops being a financial cliff and becomes a manageable slope. This is one of the less discussed impacts of repeated policy follow through.
Makinde’s approval of the 2025 thirteenth month salary did not arrive wrapped in rhetoric. It followed the familiar script of administrative normalcy. The significance lay not in novelty but in repetition. In a country where governance is often episodic, repetition itself becomes a statement. It signals predictability in a system that rarely rewards it.
From a fiscal standpoint, Oyo’s approach also reveals something deeper. Sustaining an annual bonus across multiple years requires not just political will but budgeting discipline. It suggests a confidence in revenue projections and a willingness to ring fence worker welfare even when broader economic signals remain unstable. In that sense, the thirteenth month in Oyo is not a gift. It is a budgeted line item that reflects an administrative philosophy.
Akwa Ibom and the Language of Naming
In Akwa Ibom, the thirteenth month arrived with a name. Governor Umo Eno did not just approve the bonus. He branded it. The Enomber salary, a wordplay that blended his surname with the calendar month, entered public discourse as both policy and personal signature. This act of naming transformed a routine welfare measure into an identifiable programme.
The decision to pay ahead of Christmas 2025 carried symbolic weight. Timing matters as much as amount. By placing the payment before peak festive spending, the administration positioned itself as responsive to lived realities rather than abstract calendars. The relief landed when it was most needed, not when it was most convenient.
For civil servants, the Enomber salary was not interpreted as novelty but as intent. It suggested an administration eager to communicate directly, to leave a mark, and to associate governance with tangible outcomes. In a media saturated environment, naming a policy ensures it is remembered, discussed, and politically owned.
Yet beneath the branding lay the same hard arithmetic faced by every state. Payroll costs do not disappear because a programme has a name. Akwa Ibom’s ability to fund the bonus rested on its revenue structure, historical oil derivations, and internal fiscal management. The Enomber salary may have carried personality, but it was sustained by numbers.
Adamawa and the Weight of Festive Timing
Adamawa State approached the thirteenth month from a different emotional angle. Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri’s approval of a basic thirteenth month salary late in 2025 was framed less as celebration and more as support. In a region that has experienced prolonged economic and security pressures, festive periods often amplify vulnerability rather than joy.
For Adamawa civil servants, the extra salary represented more than seasonal spending power. It arrived as acknowledgment. Recognition that public workers had navigated another year of uncertainty, rising costs, and structural strain. The decision to approve it carried a tone of steadiness rather than flourish.
Unlike states where the thirteenth month has become habitual, Adamawa’s approval still retained an element of relief. The announcement mattered. The confirmation mattered. It signalled that worker welfare had not been sidelined despite competing demands on limited resources.
From a governance perspective, Adamawa’s move illustrated how the same policy can carry different meanings depending on context. In some states it reinforces predictability. In others it restores confidence. The thirteenth month is not emotionally neutral. Its impact shifts with geography and circumstance.
Zamfara and the Politics of Repetition After Instability
In Zamfara State, the thirteenth month carries a different kind of memory. It is not yet old enough to feel permanent, but it is no longer new enough to be dismissed as a one off gesture. Governor Dauda Lawal’s approval of the bonus in December 2024 marked a second consecutive year, and by repetition alone, it began to shift from exception toward expectation.
Zamfara’s recent history has been shaped by instability, both fiscal and social. In such an environment, continuity becomes fragile. When a policy repeats itself under these conditions, it communicates endurance. Civil servants read repetition as reassurance that governance has found a rhythm, even if that rhythm remains cautious.
The timing of the 2024 approval mattered. It came at a moment when trust in institutions needed rebuilding. Paying the extra month did not solve structural problems, but it addressed something immediate and personal. It told workers that despite broader uncertainties, their labour still occupied a protected space within government priorities.
From a financial angle, Zamfara’s second year of payment hinted at recalibrated budgeting. The move suggested that the administration was testing sustainability rather than performing generosity. One year could be symbolic. Two years invited scrutiny. Three would confirm policy. Zamfara, at that moment, stood at the threshold between gesture and institution.
Edo State and Welfare Signalling in a Transition Year
Edo State’s approval of the thirteenth month in late 2024 arrived during a period of political transition. Governor Monday Okpebholo’s decision carried the weight of first impressions. In transition years, welfare policies are rarely neutral. They signal intent before ideology has time to fully form.
For Edo civil servants, the bonus was read as a message rather than a tradition. It suggested an administration eager to stabilise relations with its workforce early. In bureaucracies shaped by memory, first actions linger longer than later explanations. The thirteenth month served as an opening sentence.
The framing of the payment as workforce motivation revealed its strategic placement. Motivation implies productivity. Productivity implies expectation. The bonus therefore functioned as both reward and contract. It acknowledged past effort while quietly outlining future standards.
Edo’s case also highlighted how fiscal gestures are often layered. The thirteenth month was not isolated. It sat alongside broader welfare narratives, employment discussions, and administrative reforms. In this way, the bonus became part of a larger conversation about governance direction rather than a standalone event.
How Civil Servants Read These Approvals Beyond the Pay Slip
To understand the thirteenth month fully, one must step away from government statements and into the lived experience of civil servants. The extra salary is counted long before it is confirmed. It is mentally allocated to school fees, travel, food supplies, and obligations that December never fails to bring.
Workers do not experience the bonus as an abstract percentage of payroll. They experience it as margin. Margin between coping and borrowing. Between celebration and restraint. This is why approvals carry emotional weight disproportionate to their fiscal scale.
Across states, civil servants also read consistency as respect. A governor who pays once may earn gratitude. A governor who pays repeatedly earns credibility. Over time, credibility alters behaviour. Workers become less defensive, less speculative, more anchored in planning rather than improvisation.
This is why silence from governments that do not approve the bonus is also read loudly. Absence communicates caution, constraint, or indifference depending on context. In a country where communication gaps are common, the thirteenth month has become a shorthand for listening.
The Silent States and What Absence Communicates
For every state that approves a thirteenth month, several others remain silent. Silence does not always mean refusal. Sometimes it reflects incapacity. Sometimes it signals different priorities. But to workers, silence feels definitive.
In states where the bonus has never been paid, December arrives with resignation rather than anticipation. Expectations adjust downward. Hope is rationed. This recalibration shapes how workers engage with governance year round, not just at festive periods.
The absence of a thirteenth month also sharpens regional comparisons. Civil servants talk across borders. They compare notes. A policy in one state becomes a question in another. Why there and not here. The bonus therefore generates pressure beyond its immediate jurisdiction.
Governors are aware of this. Even those who do not approve the payment must account for it internally. Silence becomes a decision that must be defended, even if quietly. In this way, the thirteenth month influences governance discourse even where it is absent.
State Finances, Inflation Pressure and the Cost of Generosity
The economic environment surrounding these approvals cannot be ignored. Inflation has reshaped purchasing power across Nigeria. An extra salary today buys less than it did five years ago. Yet its symbolic value has increased.
From a fiscal perspective, approving a thirteenth month during inflationary pressure requires trade offs. Funds allocated here are not allocated elsewhere. Capital projects wait. Other welfare programmes pause. The decision is therefore not simply generous. It is selective.
States that approve the bonus often rely on improved revenue flows, disciplined expenditure, or confidence in future allocations. States that do not may be constrained by debt servicing, wage arrears, or volatile income streams. The difference lies less in empathy and more in arithmetic.
This is why the thirteenth month has become an informal indicator of fiscal breathing room. Not a definitive measure, but a revealing one. It shows which states believe they can afford kindness without compromising solvency.
Conclusion
December will return again. It always does. With it will come the same quiet counting, the same corridor conversations, the same waiting for confirmation. The thirteenth month will continue to hover between policy and promise, between arithmetic and empathy.
For the governors who approved it, the extra salary has become part of their administrative signature. For those who have not, it remains a question unanswered. And for civil servants, it remains what it has always been. Not a gift, but a measure of how closely governance listens when the year grows thin.