On Saturday, Organized Labour criticized state governors for their stance on the new minimum wage negotiations, accusing them of acting in bad faith. This follows the Nigeria Governors Forum’s (NGF) rejection of the proposed N60,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
In a statement released on Friday by the NGF’s Director of Media and Public Affairs, Halimah Ahmed, the governors argued that the proposed wage was too high and unsustainable. They claimed that adopting the N60,000 minimum wage would force many states to allocate their entire Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) funds to salaries, leaving no resources for development projects.
In response, Organized Labour insisted that every aspect of the new minimum wage agreement must be implemented. They demanded that any governor unable to pay the wage should resign. Deputy National President of the Trade Union Congress, Tommy Etim, expressed these sentiments in an interview.
“There is no minimum wage. Every segment of it should be implemented. For the governors, we have said it very clearly. If you cannot pay the minimum wage, please resign because you were voted for governance, not just for infrastructure,” Etim stated.
He further criticized the governors’ approach, noting, “If you build the entire infrastructure and the people are not living to use it, who will use it? When they were campaigning, did they tell us that? They didn’t tell us that. They make use of the poor to get to the top, and when they get there, they start thinking outside the box. All the money they spent on electioneering campaigns, if they applied that to build infrastructure, to develop revenue generation, that would have solved some socio-economic challenges in their domain.”
Etim warned that the NGF’s stance could lead to industrial unrest. “In this same country, the governors said that N30,000 was too much to pay, but it is in the same country that a governor emerged with over N80bn. What an irony! We cannot jump processes. We will also look at it together. Labour will be meeting. We are giving Mr. President the benefit of the doubt to work the talk. The end will justify the means,” he said.
The Nigerian Labour Congress also reacted, with its Head of Public Affairs, Benson Upah, issuing a statement. “We do believe the governors have acted in bad faith. It is unheard of for such a statement to be issued to the world in the middle of ongoing negotiations. It is certainly in bad taste,” Upah said.
He dismissed the governors’ claims, highlighting that FAAC allocations have increased from N700bn to N1.2tn, making the governments financially robust. “All that the governors need to do to be able to pay a reasonable national minimum wage (not even the N60,000) is cut on the high cost of governance, minimize corruption, and prioritize the welfare of workers,” Upah added.
