After much agitation and threats to shut down the economy by the organised labour, President Muhammadu Buhari finally transmitted a new national minimum wage Bill to the National Assembly. JOSHUA EGBODO in this piece tries to provide insight into why the lawmakers are out for a united outcome.
Firstly, the House of Representatives in an unprecedented speed passed the Bill in just days before embarking on a break for the general elections. But it was one speed appreciated by Nigerian workers.
The agitation
Agitation for a new minimum wage got prominence sometimes in October 2018, when Nigerian workers through the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), made its desire known to the government that it was time for a new national minimum wage. It, therefore, urged the executive arm of the federal government to transmit a Bill to that effect to the National Assembly for approval.
The body sustained its demand by threat of a total shutdown of the nation’s economy through industrial action. They justified its demand on the basis of law, that there shall be a five-year interval review of the national minimum wage, a period they argued the current N18,000 wage has exceeded.
The demand was to later compel the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF)) to convene a meeting, which eventually recommended N22,500. The NLC, which was demanding N56,000 earlier, seemed angered by the NGF’s proposal, and followed up with a fresh demand, insisting it would take no less than N66,000. President of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Waba at a media conference then said rather than sit as a group not recognised by Nigeria’s laws to fix the wage, the governors should go to their respective states and dialogue with their workers.
Repeated meetings were earlier held between labour and the government, specifically, the Ministry of Labour and Employment fronting for the government, but without success at resolving the differences. A seeming settlement was arrived at with the outcome of a tripartite arrangement, with the National Employers Consultative Association (NECA) in as the third party, and a N30,000 minimum wage was agreed on, and recommended the government.
Government’s below NLC’s expectation
When the National Council of State, which by rule is expected to ratify the recommendation met over the matter, it approved N27,000 as the new minimum wage, sparking another round of disagreement from labour.
President Muhammadu Buhari on January 23, 2019 forwarded a Bill for the new minimum wage, to the National Assembly, based on the recommendation of the council of state.
House in action
Less than 24 hours after receiving the bill, the House of Representatives gave it an unusual speedy attention, as it on January 24 (Thursday), pushed it through second reading with Speaker Yakubu Dogara directing that a public hearing on the Bill be held on Monday 28, for the House to consider the outcome in plenary the following morning.
Unlike the usual process of referring such a bill to a standing committee, which has oversight responsibility on the matter in question, the Speaker hurriedly constituted an Ad hoc panel, under the chairmanship of his Deputy Yussuff Lasun. Dogara’s reason for the action was that members ought to be back on the field for campaigns, and that the man in charge of the Committee on Labour and other members would be campaigning, while the House needs to get the bill passed before its break for the elections.
Signs that the House may back the recommendation of the tripartite committee suggesting N30,000 emerged during debate on its general principles, and its second reading process. Members appeared more disposed to the N30,000 proposal.
Deputy Whip of the House Pally Iriase argued against the N27,000 sent by the executive arm of government, stressing that people who depend on pegged monthly salaries were “always at the mercy of inflation rise”, and that “we (members) must work on this bill and give Nigerians N30,000, which was what the tripartite committee came out with. He said the House needs to stand up on the matter, and allow the people (workers) not to be arm-twisted into a deal they were not part of.
His position was supported by several members, including Adamu Chika, who described the recommended figure of N27,000 as “grossly inadequate”. Others, however, advised that care must be taken to ensure sustainability of payment, as many states were still owing their workers.
Workers angry with Yari, Ngige
When the Lasun-led Ad hoc committee sat to get stakeholders’ input on the bill last Monday, drama ensued with workers not willing to listen to chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulazeez Yari, and the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige. The duo were repeatedly booed during their presentations before the panel.
While Yari understandably may have attracted the anger of the workers over his position that the state governors would only stick by the outcome of the council of ctate meeting that pegged the minimum wage at N27,000, Ngige made them angrier by arguing that the unions should not describe the N30,000 recommended by the tripartite committee as an “agreement”, as according to him, it was a “mere recommendation”.
Beyond the minimum wage, what labour also asked for
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Waba, who spoke on behalf of the workers’ unions, made some demands before the House. Waba said 30 out of the 36 state governors in the country have agreed to pay the N30,000 minimum wage, stressing that the organised labour was “responsible” in its demands, after taking into consideration the economic situation of the country, and the ability of employers to pay.
However, he wanted the duration of review of the national minimum wage from five years as contained in the extant law to four years, the threshold of exempting employers with less than 25 workers to be deleted, and penalty for failure to comply with the minimum wage law increased from the paltry N5,000 to a sum not exceeding N75,000. The labour also insisted that the review committee must be retained to keep tripartite arrangement in place, with equal number of representations from all parties.
What the Reps approved
Back in session last Tuesday, the House received and considered report of the Ad hoc committee. It approved N30,000 as the new national minimum wage as recommended by the committee against the N27,000 proposed in the original bill sent by President Buhari.
It also approved the recommended fine, “not exceeding N75,000” for any employer who fails to comply with the law. But this still exclude firms with less than 25 employees, as the bill on the same day scaled third reading. Speaker Dogara subsequently promised its urgent transmission to the Senate for concurrence.
A unity of purpose?
The speed with which the House carried out the process has raised mixed feelings. Was it to score political points, or just a unity of purpose in the interest of Nigerian workers?
For instance, Speaker Dogara in his remarks before declaring the public hearing on the bill opened was unpretentiously on the side of the workers. “While we are not oblivious of the current economic downturn and the dwindling revenue of government, we cannot also be blind to the fact that all economic indices indicate that even the N30,000 that Labour is asking for is not enough to sustain a small family unit.
“The nation may not have enough to satisfy the minimum demands of the Nigerian worker, but as a nation, we need to set our economic priorities right and ensure that we dignify our workers by making allowance for their minimum comfort. I know of no alternative if we hope to up the productivity level of our workforce”, he said.
The next hurdles
It’s not yet over or a complete offer of joy for the workers, as the immediate next hurdle before the bill is for the Senate to agree with what the lower house has passed. Would it adopt it, or pass its own version based on what the president recommended? If it concurred with the House, would President Buhari gives assent to it, especially since there is an increment from what he (the President) expected to be the new minimum wage?
Whatever that challenges are, Nigerians appeared also united at the moment, that workers in the country deserved a living wage.
