Minimum Wage: Governors Give Fresh Condition To Pay N30,000

Governors Demand New Revenue Sharing Formula In Order To Pay N30,000 Minimum Wage

To be able to pay the N30,000 new minimum wage demanded by labour, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) is reportedly demanding an adjustment of the current revenue sharing formula.

It was gathered by Naija News that the governors made this demand at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, which held in Abuja, yesterday.

Recall the current revenue sharing formula allocates the biggest share of funds to the federal government while the state and local governments share the balance.

However, a source privy to the NEC meeting as quoted by Sun News, said that the demand by the governors has prompted the federal government to take a decision to table the request before the Council of State at a meeting scheduled for next Tuesday.

The last time the Council of State held was about 11 months ago, precisely on February 22, 2018.

The Council of State consists of the president, who is the chairman; the vice-president, who is the deputy chairman, all former presidents of the Federation and all former Heads of the Government of the federation, all former chief justices of Nigeria, the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives; all state governors and the Attorney-General of the Federation.

“We are making progress. We will be meeting with the Council of States. The Advisory Committee is looking into the revenue sharing formula,” the source said.

Recall that as earlier published by Naija News, an emergency meeting of the Federal Executive Council on Tuesday, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, had resolved to table the minimum wage issue before NEC for further discussions.

Speaking with state house corespondents after the NEC meeting yesterday, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige, said deliberations were still ongoing on the new minimum wage.

“Discussions are still ongoing and will terminate on January 22, when we meet with the National Council of State.”

“Governors are part of Nigeria and they are part of the government’s public sector, so, don’t disengage them or disarticulate them from the federal government; the public is the federal government and the state government and even the local government.”

Naija News recalls organised labour had threatened to proceed on an indefinite strike if the N30,000 new minimum wage is not implemented for Nigerian workers.

The federal government had proposed N24,000 as new minimum wage, while the governors insisted they can only afford N22,500.