Exposed! Why govs ‘re ‘resisting’ minimum wage

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has  declared that intent to loot and lack of conscience have emerged the reason any governor would hesitate to pay workers the N30,000 new national minimum wage.

NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, in his new year messgae said ongoing revelations on the monumental looting perpetrated by former governors prove that only an intent to loot, and dead conscience not availability of resources would be the reason any governor not to pay the new wage.

According to him, “We wish to remind state governors that no excuse would be good enough for failure to pay. The ongoing revelations on the monumental looting perpetrated by former governors prove that only an intent to loot, and deadened conscience not availability of resources would be the reason any governor would hesitate to pay workers the N30,000 new national minimum wage and the consequential adjustment in salaries.

“The new national minimum wage is now a law and state governors do not have the luxury to choose whether to pay or not.

“We use this medium to implore states that are yet to implement the new national minimum wage including the states that are yet to begin negotiation with labour on the consequential wage adjustment to speedily do the needful.

“In tandem with our position as adopted and communicated after a stakeholders’ meeting on December 11, 2019, organised labour in Nigeria will not guarantee industrial harmony in states that fail to implement the new national minimum wage by December 31, 2019. We direct our state councils to be on the standby to robustly engage state governments that fail to obey our laws.

“We will get stakeholders: experts, policymakers, concerned demographics and workers on a round-table to find answers and solutions to Nigeria’s burgeoning unemployment crisis.

“In the spirit of growing the economy and creating jobs, we urge our compatriots especially our elites to change our consumption habits. We must consume what we produce. We must patronise “Made in Nigeria.

‘’Given that every naira stolen from the Nigerian people is an infrastructure stolen, a job stolen, a dignity stolen, a future stolen and sometimes, lives stolen, the NLC will continue to support the current efforts by the President Muhammadu Buhari government to rid Nigeria of official graft.

We will also continue to partner with anti-corruption agencies to increase public awareness on the ills of official corruption and to expose fraudulent deals and characters.”

Leave a Reply