…says state governors should decentralize their salaries, emoluments first
By Olawale Lamina
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress ,NLC, comrade Joe Ajaero, seems to have doused anxiety among Nigerians by stating that the organized labour would not embark on industrial action over the current new minimum wage disagreement with the federal government.
Ajaero hinged the decision not to go on strike labour yet on the fact that the figures (proposals) are currently on the table of President Tinubu, while the unions are awaiting a feedback that would shape further decisions if the need arises.
tMr. Ajaero made the disclosure while speaking on Monday at the International Labour Conference, ILO, holding in Geneva, Switzerland.
Drawing from experiences with past administrations, the NLC President emphasized the possibility for the Tinubu-led government to increase the figure before him.
But he criticized state governors who had announced their inability to pay the proposed N62,000 new minimum wage, which the federal government has offered the workers, but preferred the decentralization of same at the state level, ( so that states can pay workers based on their abilities and not following what the federal government has to offer.)
In his response to the proposed figure currently before President Tinubu, Ajaero explained that, “We cannot declare strike now because the figures are with the President.”
“During the tenure of the immediate past President, the figure that was proposed to him was N27,000 by the tripartite committee but he increased it to N30,000. We are hopeful that this President will do the right thing. The President had noted that the difference between N62,000 and N250,000 is a wide gulf.”
And, reacting to the governors’ voiced inability to pay, the NLC leader said: “How can any governor say he cannot pay? They cannot also be calling for the decentralization of the minimum wage.
“Are there wages decentralized? Governors whose states are not contributing a dime to the national purse and who generate pitiable Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) are collecting the same amount as governors whose states are generating billions of dollars into the FAAC.
“They should decentralize their salaries and emoluments first.”
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