President Bola Tinubu has appealed to 36 State governors in the country to implement the new minimum wage to reduce the hardship on the citizens.
President Tinubu made the appeal in Niger state at the flag-off of the agricultural mechanization revolution for food security and the commissioning of the remodelled domestic terminal of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Airport on Monday.
The organized Labour in the country had proposed over N709,000 as minimum wage while the federal government has offered N30,000 for the public work force.
The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC said last week that the N709,000 is comensurate with the current economic realities in the country.
Some states governments have yet to implement the last minimum wage of N18,000 per worker, fueling fear that such states may not be able to pay the approved N30,000 wage.
Speaking yesterday, Tinubu said the poverty in the country would be alleviated if sub-nationals could pay the new wage to their workers.
The president also stated that the paying the new wage will not lead to inflation in the country as being contemplated by some analysts.
Tinubu said: “If all of you, the sub-nationals have been paying the wages award, pending the determination of the new salary wage. Let all the states start paying the wages award. Whatever they are taking now plus the wage award would relieve the public.
“Please, I am not giving an order, I am appealing to you states, start paying the wages awards, let everyone start paying it. It is a relief to the people. The mechanism is the fact that it won’t be inflationary if we announce the new salary wage in a few weeks or months, they would have gotten used to the basic wages of N30,000 plus the wages award, and it will have a dampening effect on the market. Please get sub-nationals together and NEC should adopt this.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, has rejected the new minimum wage proposed by the country’s labour union.
