Given the delay in enacting the new minimum wage, Organised Labour has urged Nigerians to exercise patience with their federal and state governments. This occurred concurrently with the Federal Government being cleared of any misconduct by the workers’ union, which stated that it would be unjust to infer that a purposeful effort was made to evade paying the new minimum wage. This was said in a conversation with our correspondent on Monday by Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, the deputy president of the Nigeria Labour Congress Political Commission. On July 29, following a meeting with the heads of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu officially signed the new minimum wage into law.
Only seven other states—Kano, Kwara, Ogun, Borno, Jigawa, Ondo, and Abia—have established committees to oversee the implementation of the recently authorised N70,000 minimum wage, according to a PUNCH report. Plateau, Kebbi, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Bayelsa, Delta, Osun, Ekiti, Zamfara, Benue, Enugu, Taraba, Gombe, Kogi, Enugu, Adamawa, Niger, Anambra, Imo, Ebonyi, Oyo, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Katsina, Kaduna, Cross River, and Yobe are the states that have not yet raised implementation panels.
So far, only Lagos and Edo claimed to have started paying the minimum wage.
Meanwhile, Adamawa government has also joined the growing list of states willing to pay the new wage on Monday.
Ndubuaku, however, insisted that it was important to let people know that there might be a slight delay as a result of the processes involved in the implementation of the N70,000 wage.
Nevertheless, the union leader expressed optimism that the process may be concluded by the end of August.
He said, “We have no reason to suspect that (deliberate delay). In a real sense, signing the wage is just a small component of the main activity. There is something we call consequential adjustment. That involves the calculation of the minimum wage from level one, step one. From there, we will move from stage one to 13 all the way to level 16.
“So it is something that may take some time. Again, they are not going to compile them alone. There are templates for compiling it. But they must also carry us along. I believe you are aware there is a committee that is supposed to carry out the necessary adjustments. We expect it should be completed before the end of the month.”