The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress Joe Ajaero, has voiced disapproval of the selection procedure for state governors appointed as members of the 37-member Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage. He highlighted that a significant number of governors serving on the panel do not comply with the existing minimum wage regulations.
Ajaero, while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today said, ”Most of the governors in the minimum wage committee are those who are not paying minimum wage or paying them in breaches.
”The governors who are in full compliance with the minimum wage are not adequately represented, so whatever made the Federal Government bring in those who are not compliant or compliant in breaches to form the bulk of the membership of the minimum wage committee from the state government, that will unfold with time.”
Earlier today, Vice President Kashim Shettima inaugurated the committee at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa in Abuja. He stated that the decision was made to ensure the establishment of a decent living wage in accordance with the current National Minimum Wage Act of 2019, which is set to expire in a few months.
In his opening address, Shettima urged members to “speedily” arrive at a resolution and submit their reports early as the current N30,000 minimum wage expires at the end of March 2024.
In May 2017, the House of Representatives initiated a move to amend the National Minimum Wage Act to mandate a compulsory review of workers’ compensation every five years.
Among the governors listed are Mohammed Bago of Niger State, representing the Nigeria Governors Forum for the North Central region; Senator Bala Mohammed, Governor of Bauchi State, representing the North East region; Umar Radda of Katsina State, representing the North West region; Prof. Charles Soludo of Anambra State, representing the South East region; Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, representing the South West region; and Otu Bassey of Cross River State, representing the South-South region.
When asked to name the states that have failed to implement the minimum wage, Ajaero said ”A state like Zamfara, I don’t know how much Borno and Bauchi are paying, there is a minimum wage law which criminalises the non-compliance of the minimum wage
”And the Nigerian state has not tried to enforce these laws, others are just enforcing them in breaches. Take Anambra State for instance, Anambra state pays N30,000 for the least paid. I challenge anybody from Anambra to prove that even a permanent secretary is earning up to N170,000 or N180,000.”
The NLC president also spoke on the country’s dependence on the dollar as its means of transaction.
”The issue of the dollarisation of the currency is clear and the FG is not doing anything about it,” he said.
He also revealed that the Labour Congress is helpless in solving the issue as this is a policy of the Federal Government
”We are worried about it but there is nothing we can do since the Nigerian government has chosen the dollar as a formal currency that will benchmark all they are doing.
“The issue of the dollarisation of the currency is clear and the FG is not doing anything about it…We are worried about it but there is nothing we can do since the Nigerian government has chosen the dollar as a formal currency that will benchmark all they are doing,” he said.
