Shehu Sani joins labour unions in condemning governors for failing to commit to new minimum wage

KADUNA Central Senatorial District lawmaker Senator Shehu Sani has criticised Nigeria's state governors over their inability to pay N30,000 ($62) as a new minimum wage as agreed between the federal government and organised labour unions.

Earlier this month, organised labour had been planning to call a general strike as the November 6 deadline given to ministers to implement the new N30,000 a month minimum wage was not met. Over recent months, the government and the trade unions have been negotiating a minimum wage and the two sides have agreed to increase the amount to N30,000 from the current N18,000 a month.

According to the unions, the Tripartite Committee on the New National Minimum Wage had concluded its negotiations and agreed on N30, 000 following an appeal made by Organisation Private Sector (OPS) as to what its members could afford. However, early this month, the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) met in Abuja and said it could only afford a minimum wage of N22,500, which the labour unions dismissed as unacceptable.

Yesterday, Governor Abdulaziz Yari, the NGF chairman said at the end of an emergency meeting of the governors in Abuja that payment of N30,000 wage was impracticable. He added that the proposed wage could only be paid if labour would agree to the downsizing of the workforce across the country.

At its meeting, the NGF constituted a committee made up of the governors of Lagos, Kebbi, Plateau, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Enugu and Kaduna states to meet with President Buhari to work out a formula to quickly resolve the issues. However,  reacting, Senator Sani in a post on his Twitter page questioned why funds are not available to pay workers, yet campaigns and elections are being funded adequately.

Senator Sani wrote: “There is enough money to pay elected officials, there is enough money to pay political appointees and here is enough money to pay campaign officials and foot soldiers. There is enough money to fund campaigns and elections but there is not enough to pay workers 30k wages without retrenchment.”

Governor Yari said, however: “We still said that we want to pay but the issue is the ability to pay. If we say no, just pay, I don’t know how this formula will work and I don’t know how we can get a solution to the issue.

“Today it is N18,000 and in 2015 when the president assumed office, 27 states were not able to pay, not that they chose not to pay. Now you say N30, 000, how many of us can pay? We will be bankrupt, so as Nigerians, we should look at the issues seriously.

“Lagos that is paying about N7bn as salaries now, if you say it should start paying N30,000 the cost of salary will be N13bn. From our calculation, it is only Lagos state that will be able to pay 30,000 and as Nigerians, this is our country, there is no other country we have and we should be fair to this country.”

He added that it was the same labour leadership pushing for N30,000 that would turn around to say that governors did not build any infrastructure. According to Governor Yari, the governors would continue to talk with labour leaders to let them see reasons why they are  having difficulties in paying the proposed wage.

However, labour unions have rejected the governors’ claim that states cannot pay the N30,000 minimum wage if it is eventually approved. Also, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) condemned  the threat by the governors to sack workers should the new wage come into effect.

NLC president Ayuba Wabba, said workers might be prevailed upon not to vote for governors who fail to pay the new wage. He added:  “The consequences of workers’ retrenchment are too grievous for any political office holder truly elected by the people to contemplate.

 “Few political office holders are bent on enslaving Nigerian workers with peanuts mislabelled as salaries. We urge such elected public officials to subject their humongous salaries and allowances, reputed to be among the highest in the world to public perusal pro rata with the minimum wage, they want to force down the throats of Nigerian workers.”

He urged President Buhari to speedily present to the National Assembly the bill on the national minimum wage for appropriate amendment and implementation. Mr Wabba also called on Governor Yari to desist from using the NGF  platform to seek political relevance as his tactics of blackmail against workers is already time worn and the stench is offensive.