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NLC Tackle Governors, Urge Them To Resign If Can’t Pay New Minimum Wage

NLC Tackle Governors, Urge Them To Resign If Can’t Pay New Minimum Wage

The NLC on Saturday night tackle governors who oppose the new minimum wage increment of “above N60,000”, accuse them of acting in bad faith towards the ongoing negotiations and urge them to resign if they can’t pay the amount.

This follows a statement issued on Friday by the Nigerian Governors Forum, through the Director of Media and Public Affairs for NGF, Halimah Ahmed, which said that the proposed minimum wage was too high and not sustainable.

The governors have stated that if the N60,000 minimum wage is adopted, many states would allocate their entire Federal Account Allocation Committee funds to salaries, leaving no resources for infrastructural development in the state.

In response, the Organised Labour faulted the NGF’s position, saying every part of the new minimum wage agreement should be implemented and any of the state governors who can’t pay it should resign.

The Deputy National President of the Trade Union Congress, Tommy Etim, said, “There is no minimum wage. Every segment of it should be implemented. For the governors, we have said it very clearly. If you cannot pay minimum wage, please resign because you were voted for governance not for only infrastructure.”

“If you build the entire infrastructure and the people are not living to use it, who will use it? When they were campaigning did they tell us that? They didn’t tell us that. They make use of the poor to get to the top and when they get there, they start thinking outside the box. All the money they spent in electioneering campaigns, if they applied that to build infrastructure, to develop the revenue generation that would have solved some socio-economic challenges in their domain,” He added.

Citing the flamboyant lifestyle and embezzlement some governors indulge in and yet frowns at any attempt to increase salaries for workers, he described it as an “irony” and insisted that no process will be jumped.

 

he said, “In this same country, the governors said that N30,000 was too much for governors to pay but it is in the same country that a governor emerged with over N80bn. What an irony! We cannot jump processes. We will also look at it together. Labour will be meeting. We are giving Mr President the benefit of the doubt to work the talk. The end will justify the means.”

Also reacting in a statement signed by its Head of Public Affairs, Benson Upah, the Nigerian Labour Congress said, “We do believe the Governors have acted in bad faith. It is unheard of for such a statement to be issued to the world in the middle of an on-going negotiation. It is certainly in bad taste.

“All that the governors need to do to be able to pay a reasonable national minimum wage (not even the N60,000) is cut on the high cost of governance, minimise corruption as well as prioritise the welfare of workers.”

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