NLC and TUC
According to a report by the Nation News, Nigerian governors are not considering a minimum wage that is higher than N70,000, it was learned last night.
The source revealed that "At a meeting yesterday in Abuja, the state helmsmen reviewed the economic situation and concluded that anything above N70,000 will not be affordable and sustainable.
They ruled out the N100,000 and N105,000 options being speculated by some people.
The report said “After deliberation on the minimum wage, we decided to consider options between N60,000 and N70,000 a month. We could not reach a concrete decision on the wage rate for states.
“Eventually, a committee, to be led by Governor Uzodimma, was mandated to look at all presentations and make recommendations.
However, one would wonder if the state governors proposing a maximum of N70,000 Minimum Wage are toying with themselves or setting up the civil servants against the game the governors best know how to play.
Considerably, there are many states in Nigeria today that have not implemented the N30,000 minimum wage which expired, recently after five years of its adoption.
The Minimum Wage Act signed by Buhari stipulated that wages be reviewed after five years, which has brought us to where we are in 2024.
Pathetically, how will a state that finds it worth paying N30,000 minimum wage be quiet while the committee of states is agreeing to a minimum wage range between N60,000 and N70,000?
Unfortunately, today, the state governors deployed political tactics and played politics with everything that has to do with the business of governance at the state level.
Presently, many states are keeping quiet, purposely, the minimum wage negotiation seems more to be a yardstick to be used by Nigerians to assess the performance of the Federal Government, which some of the governors would always prefer it fall below average. However, when the minimum wage is agreed upon by the Federal Government, the governors always know his it plays politics with the reality.
Take for instance, a state governor, who will decide to refuse the implementation of the minimum wage after its approval, only to force the state workers to another series of meetings to negotiate the amount such a state can pay, which will surely fall below the national benchmark.
These state governors will come back to blame the federal government for giving them insufficient monthly allocation, even when they have their means of earning Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.
Government officials might not be reliable in ensuring the welfare of the populace, civil servants too seem to be too selfish in their demands.
Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo brought the idea of minimum wage as a regional idea, which made the civil servants in the Western Region earn better than any worker elsewhere, including those in the Federal payroll, however, we have a new set of leaders, and the civil servants ought to be innovative in their new demands.
What is bad if the Civil Servants can stand in the government to formulate a very strong price control system, border security network, and means to improve the agricultural productivity of the country which will lessen the economic crisis that mandated the recent demand for a rise in the minimum wage.
Policy review can certainly correct the economic hardships brought upon the country by the removal of fuel subsidies.
Opening of the border and declaration of tax holiday for a short period until the Nigerian agricultural campaign begins to yield enough produce to cater to the needs of her population could have been one of the demands by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) but for their selfishness.
Like it or not, Lagos, Kano, Edo, Rivers, Ogun, Delta, Akwa Ibom, and Cross Rivers are the states that may be considered viable to meet up with the payment of any minimum wage within the proposed range even though their viability is open to threat by the fall in oil pump price in the global market and a rise in electric cars in many countries.
Category: World-News
Tag: Governors Take Position On Speculated Minimum Wage
Written by Author (author)
Published 6/7/2024 10:20:04 AM