Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Thursday, presided over the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting convened to discuss the new national minimum wage and other issues.
In attendance at the meeting which started by 11:26 a.m. at the council chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja were governors of Zamfara, Lagos, Jigawa, Ekiti, Kebbi, Bauchi, Niger, Plateau and Adamawa states.
Our correspondents reports that some Deputy Governors and ministers including that of Labour, Chris Ngige were also in attendance, though decision of the meeting was not made available to the press.
Daily Trust gathered that neither Akwa Ibom governor Udom Emmanuel nor his deputy Moses Ekpo attended the meeting.
Straightnews learnt that on Monday, January 14, Governor Emmanuel visited workers at their Solidarity Centre, Atan Offot, Uyo, and pledged to pay workers the new Minimum Wage if the Federal Government approves it.
The NEC comprises all the governors, Minister of Finance, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria and Accountant-General of the Federation, among other critical stakeholders.
Recall that at the end of an emergency Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Tuesday, the Federal government said the final position of the NEC was being awaited on the new national minimum wage
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, told State House correspondents at the end of an extraordinary Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Tuesday in Abuja that the new minimum wage is still work in progress.
He said the federal government is awaiting the final position of the NEC on the new national minimum wage, stressing that FEC meeting on the matter is work on progress.
“It’s a work in progress. It would also be discussed by the National Economic Council (NEC) before we can brief the media,” he said.
The President Buhari had on January 9 inaugurated a Technical Advisory Committee on the implementation of the new National Minimum Wage and reiterated his commitment to its payment.
He restated his commitment to an upward review of the minimum wage, stressing that “it is time to do so.”
He said the committee would recommend “modalities for the implementation of the new minimum wage in such a manner as to minimise its inflationary impact, as well as ensure that its introduction does not lead to job losses.”
Straightnews gathered from close quarters that the political class has devised a ploy not to implement the new minimum wage until the elections are over except Organised Labour takes the bull by the horn by threatening to embark on nationwide strike.
The organised labour had made the presentation of the new National Minimum Wage Bill to the National Assembly as a precondition for shelving its proposed nationwide strike scheduled to commence on January 28.
The labour had insisted on a N30,000 minimum wage, while the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) proposed N24,000.
A tripartite committee of the federal government chaired by Ama Pepple, a former Head of Service of the federation had recommended N30,000 last year.
