Even as the Organized Labour is locked in negotiations for an increase in wages for the country’s workforce, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on Monday, June 24 2024, accused 15 State Governors of refusal to give effect to the 2019 approved monthly minimum wage of N 30,000.
The NLC expressed surprise that even with the increase in revenue from the Federation Account, Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Delta, Enugu, Nassarawa, Adamawa, Gombe, Niger, Borno, Sokoto, Imo, Benue, Taraba and Zamfara States have so far failed to implement the N30,000 minimum monthly wage for their workers.
In a Media chat in Abuja, the NLC Assistant General Scribe, Chris Onyeka, blasted the Governors of the affected States for their blatant disregard for a duly enacted law.
Onyeka noted that for the Governors to continue to refuse to implement the N30,000 wage, with the excruciating hardship in the country and the enormous revenue at their disposal as a result of the removal of petrolatum products subsidy, smacks of gross insensitive and total disregard for the welfare of the suffering workforce.
“A state Governor who does not believe in the sanctity of the laws will have a high proclivity to disobey them. If you examine the history of these Governors and their handlers, you will find a preponderance of those who came to power by breaking the laws.
“Is it now that they will obey the National Minimum Wage Act? Some Governors perceive State resources as their own.
“They believe erroneously that workers salaries can wait or be toyed with without consequences. So they do not place priority on it.
“However, they forget that workers are human beings who need their salaries to meet their basic needs of life” Onyeka noted
The NLC Assistant National Secretary also attributed the sad development to unbridled greed and quest for the primitive accumulation of wealth by some Governors, in addition to fiscal recklessness.
“Governors should ensure budgetary fidelity, shun funds diversions and stop making provisions that allow for looting of the States.
They should stay more in their States, instead of constantly being in Abuja ,spending a lot of money maintaining two Government Houses” the NLC Scribe admonished.
According to him, financial indiscipline, and mismanagement of State resources by some Governors, have led them in to viewing other peoples’ needs as secondary, which in turn results in their mindless appropriation of state resources.
Onyeka insisted that with fiscal discipline, display of sincerity of purpose and accountability, state Governors will not find the protection of the interests and welfare of the workforce burdensome.
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