August 25, (THEWILL) – Almost a month after President Bola Tinubu on July 29, 2024, signed the new minimum wage of N70,000 into law, it is becoming increasingly clear in many states across the country that the willingness and readiness to obey the new law may not necessarily translate into ability to pay. From this lacuna comes restiveness among workers in about 27 states, including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, that are yet to set up committees to implement the new wage.
Thirteen states so far have constituted implementation committees. They are Anambra, Delta, Rivers, Kano, Kebbi, Kwara, Ogun, Borno, Jigawa, Ondo, Adamawa, Oyo, Bayelsa, Osun and Abia.
Plateau, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Ekiti, Zamfara, Benue, Enugu, Taraba, Gombe, Kogi, Enugu, Niger, Imo, Ebonyi, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Katsina, Kaduna, Cross River and Yobe States are still foot dragging.
Long before the new wage was settled and signed into law, Edo State had announced N70,000, which it started paying on Labour Day. Also, Lagos State says it has been paying the minimum wage.
Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos, Mr Gbenga Omotoso told THEWILL on Friday that the state had been paying its workers above the minimum wage before the enactment of the Act.
He said, “Before the announcement of the new minimum wage, what we were paying or what we are paying now is above the new minimum wage, which is about N77,000. So, the question of whether Lagos is paying or wants to pay is out of it.”
Explaining further, Omotosho added, “Before the conclusion of the talks over the new minimum wage, Lagos was paying N35,000 and when the Federal Government announced a wage award of N35, 000, Lagos started paying immediately. So, if you add the N35,000 apiece, you have N70,000. Then there is an additional N7,000 that was added to the wage to make it N77,000.”
He however disclosed that based on the new law, the state has set up a committee to work out the consequential component of the new wage.
Thus, apart from Edo and Lagos, there is no state in Nigeria, including the Federal Government, that is currently paying the new minimum wage since the enactment of the new law almost a month ago and five months after the N35,000 wage expired in April, 2024.
THEWILL can confirm the state of progress in the seven states that have set up committees on the implementation of the new wage.
The Kano State Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Baba Dantiye told THEWILL that the committee has done much of the required work. “A committee has been set up and I am a member. The committee is yet to present its report but it has gone far with the job.”
In Kwara state, work on the execution of the new wage is in progress. According to Rafiu Ajakaye, Chief Press Secretary to Governor AbdulRahman AbduRasaq, the state is awaiting the new wage implementation committee to complete work on the consequential part of the new wage before going ahead to start paying.
Ajakaiye told this newspaper on Friday: “The minimum wage is a law. It is already an Act of Parliament. So, the question of anybody paying below the N70,000 threshold is off the table. So that is not open to debate. What is open to debate is the consequential component of the new wage, which applies to the senior cadre. That is the stage we are now in Kwara State.”
The Akwa Ibom State Government says it has set up a committee on the implementation of the new wage, but the Head of Service, Prince Enobong Uwah and the State Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Comrade Sunny James both said last Monday that they were yet to engage in any discussion.
In Bayelsa, State, a committee has been set up by Gov Douye Diri headed by the SSG to the state government, Prof Nimibofa Ayawei. They have met but have yet to make public their resolutions.
Governor Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State last Wednesday expressed his obligation on the new wage. He said on his X account: “As a demonstration of our commitment to the welfare of workers in Adamawa State, I have approved the payment of a N70,000 minimum wage starting this August. Our civil servants deserve this and more. Together, we will continue to build a prosperous future for all.”
Oyo, Ondo, and Osun have made the commitment to pay. The Secretary of Trade Union Congress, TUC, Comrade Babatunde Balogun, who is also part of an existing team in Oyo state that interfaces with the state government expressed the optimism that the government would pay the new wage.
Thus, while this general expression of commitment to pay among some state governors is ongoing, two out of the 27 states that are yet to set the ball rolling by setting up implementation committees, have come out to declare a two- pronged approach that may instigate protests.
THE CHALLENGE AHEAD
The first approach is an expression of the inability to pay. The second is a policy of convenience. Gombe represents the first, while Nasarawa represents the second.
In the first category, Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State has said his administration does not have the money to pay the new wage. Rather than set up a committee to look into the matter, he invited labour leaders and their civil society counterparts for a talk in Government House. There, he told his guests that despite the recent increase in federal allocations since the removal of fuel subsidy, his administration would not be able to pay the new wage.
Yahaya, who is Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum said that paying the old wage had been a daily struggle, arguing that apart from his administration, many states cannot pay, too.
He said, “I cannot pay the N70,000 minimum wage and I suspect many other states are in the same predicament.”
The second option is presented by the Nasarawa State Government. After expressing his administration’s inability to pay the new wage before labour leaders, Governor Abdullahi Sule, who announced that the state government cannot pay N70,000 as minimum wage to civil servants in the state, made an offer to the workers: Pending promotions will be carried out with the payment of backlog of salaries. In that instant, the implementation of the new minimum wage would be deferred to 2026.
He said, “… If the impact of the minimum wage comes to us as, say, N800m a month, if you put together this N200m, it is about one billion naira. The state cannot pay. The state does not have the capacity to pay.”
Similarly, Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State, who had earlier promised to pay the new wage, is not as sure-footed as before. Before the passage of the bill and the signing into law, he announced the willingness of his administration to implement it. However, the government has neither set up an implementation committee nor has he offered any explanation.
In Plateau, Governor Caleb Muftwang had taken a position during the #EndBadGovernenance protest in August. Addressing protesters at Government House a fortnight ago, the governor expressed his administration’s inability to cope with the legalised minimum wage and said the state would collaborate with labour to reach a workable figure as its own minimum wage.
THE GOVERNORS’ ARGUMENT
According to the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, data in its possession shows that the total budgeted revenue of the 36 states in 2024 is N15,668,697,471,227, comprising recurrent expenditure of N6,212,475,163,133 and net revenue stands of N9,456,222,308,093.
The new wage, which was increased by 50 percent, has taken recurrent expenditure to N9,318,712,744,700 and net revenue at N6,349,984,726,526.
This conclusion is that many states may be able to pay the new wage. To source revenue, many would have to take the unpalatable route of increased taxation of their people, which may be very hard to do in the face of growing hardship since the removal of fuel subsidy and floating of the naira.
Many state governors who are reluctant to set up new wage implementation committees have warned that payment of the new minimum wage in their states could lead to retrenchment of workers. When reminded that increased allocation from the federation account has tripled since the removal of fuel subsidy, they argue that they are reeling in debts inherited from their predecessors.
A graphic example showing the inability of many states to pay the new wage is presented by the fact that 14 of them could not pay the old N30,000 minimum wage enacted in 2019 on a sustainable level. The 13 states include Abia, Bayelsa, Enugu, Nasarawa, Adamawa, Gombe, Niger, Borno, Sokoto, Anambra, Imo, Benue and Taraba.
Sixteen states are currently paying the old minimum wage. They are Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Plateau, Yobe, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti, Rivers, Cross River, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and Kwara.
ORGANISED PRIVATE SECTOR
Just like many state governors, the organised private sector is also fretting over the cost implications of the new minimum wage and thus giving some conditions under which they would comply. The Federal Government, they reportedly claimed, is yet to fulfil the promise of some support to the sector which will enable it to comply with the new wage law.
The Director-General, NECA, Mr. Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, while reportedly speaking on behalf of the sector, stated that at the time the consultations were ongoing on the national minimum wage, the sector had expressed concerns about the ability of the private sector to pay the N62,000 recommended by the Tripartite Committee then.
According to him, the N62,000 deal was premised on the understanding and agreement that the Federal Government would take definite steps to reduce the current economic burden on the organized private sector.
WORKERS, LABOUR LEADERS REACT
“As far as we are concerned, the state governors must abide by what the law says or we will fight them legally. What they are being asked to pay is not even a living wage,” Shehu Mohammed, National President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCN, told THEWILL in a brief interview on Friday. “Before the bill was signed into law, the Federal Government had increased the allocations to states to twice the amount they used to receive in the past. That is quite enough. We are waiting for the government implementation committees to address the consequential issues of the new wage and release the template to the states. Then our colleagues at the state level will meet with the governors on the way forward.
“Any state not ready to implement the new minimum wage, we will go after them. Some states have started paying. So, we do not want to hear that they are doing so because they are oil producing states or commercial hubs. It is all about commitment.”
TUC’s Comrade Balogun said workers will exhaust all legal and civil means to make state governors pay the new wage.
He told this newspaper, “We have left the era of ‘sit down and look.’ Any attempt not to pay will be resisted. We shall mobilise all members of our parent body, the TUC to ensure total compliance with the national minimum wage at all levels. We shall employ both legal and our traditional measure of protest and strike to ensure compliance.”
For Comrade James Ezema, Deputy National Publicity of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties CNPP Shehu’s views are in order. He told THEWILL that “N70,000 is not a living wage but a mere minimum wage which a prudent and innovative governor can pay. Nigerians and Nigerian workers should hold their state governors accountable for their actions, if they fail to pay.”
Supporting the view that the new wage is payable, Chairman of Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Government Area of Lagos State, Mr Fatai Ayoola, even said that local government councils have no reason not to pay the newly-approved N70,000 minimum wage.
He reportedly said that, with increased federal allocations under the President Bola Tinubu’s administration and the recently-granted financial autonomy, local government councils had been well-equipped to pay the new wage.
According to him, local government councils recorded a 100 per cent increase in federal allocations under the present administration.
“There is no reason LG councils should not be able to pay the minimum wage, with direct federal allocations coming to them.”
Amos Esele is the Acting Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
Amos Okioma is a Correspondent at THEWILL
