Abdulaziz Yari, governor of Zamfara state
*Governors to meet, brief EMT Tuesday
The Federal Government and State governors are yet to agree on a
common figure as the minimum wage.
The Economic Management Team (EMT), chaired by the Vice
President, Yemi Osinbajo met with representatives of the governors
on Monday towards taking position on the new minimum wage which the
organised labour is insisting on N30,000.
The governors at the meeting on Monday had requested to meet on
Tuesday under the platform of the Nigeria’s Governors Forum (NGF)
in order to critically analyse the memo from the Minister of Labour
and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, and finally take a common
stand.
But there was indication on Monday that the governors were not
in agreement with the Federal Government over the figure for the
new minimum wage.
Stressing that state governments are willing to pay any amount
demanded by the workers as minimum wage, the Chairman of the
Nigeria Governors Forum and Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari,
while speaking with State House correspondents, said that their
main challenge could be the capacity to pay.
According to him, the meeting was for the government side to
look at the bottleneck on the minimum wage with the organised
labour.
He said, “The position of the governors is not very clear to
some of you. We are willing to pay any amount but the issue is the
capacity to pay.”
The meeting, he said, discussed the proposal made by the
organised labour and the figure proposed by the Federal Government,
adding that “the governors still haven’t come out with any
figure.”
“So by Tuesday, we are going to discuss with our governors on
the bill by the Minister of Labour and Employment to the NGF
Secretariat.
“We will digest it and come up with our own positions as
governors because we are critical stakeholders on this issue.” he
said
A reliable source from the meeting said that the governors were
not comfortable with the N24,000 proposal by the Federal Government
and would likely come up with their own figure after meeting
today.
According to him, the governors were furious with the N24,000
being proposed when some governors were unable to pay the current
N18,000.
The Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige said the meeting had a
fruitful deliberation.
He said, “We held a meeting for us to bring out modalities for
us to respond to the emerging problems thrown up by the National
Minimum wage Committee and we have very fruitful meeting which
necessitated in governors having further meeting on Tuesday.
“We will reconvene on Tuesday to brief the Economic Management
Team and the Vice president and we take it up from there.
“The governors will meet to take a position and brief the
Economic Management Team. This meeting is only for the Tripartite
Committee of the government side.” he said