Akwa Ibom Government is yet to constitute a committee to implement payment of new Minimum wage to workers in its employ, the state Head of Civil Service, Elder Effiong Essien, said.
Elder Essien who conveyed the message to Straightnews newspaper via telephone on Monday, August 12 responded thus ‘‘Not Yet.’’
Recall that the state Head of Civil Service, Essien, had assured of the state government’s readiness to pay the agreed new minimum wage between the Federal Government and Nigeria Labour Congress.
He stated this on Wednesday, June 24, 2024 while fielding questions from newsmen during a press briefing to mark the 2024 Public Service Week with the theme Stay Forward Looking…Make a Difference.
This came at a time when the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, a peer review body of 36 state governors, said that although a new minimum wage is due, but stressed that the proposed N60,000 is not sustainable
“When the issue of minimum wage came up last time, we were among the first states to pay in 2019, even above what was agreed at the national. We’ll declare what we’ll pay once the new minimum wage is announced,” Essien said.
Asked by Straightnews newspaper what the Nigeria Labour Congress was doing to force the state government to pay the minimum wage, Comrade Sunny James, Chairperson of NLC, Akwa Ibom Council, ”We don’t need to force anyone as he (the Governor) has no alternative to pay.
”I’m only waiting for the National Salaries Commission to release tables which will be the basis for engagement at the states,” James said.
Incidentally, 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory are yet to set up committees to implement the recently approved N70,000 minimum wage.
The states are 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.
However, seven other states — Kano, Kwara, Ogun, Borno, Jigawa, Ondo, and Abia — have set up implementation committees. Only Lagos and Edo claimed to have started paying the minimum wage.
President Bola Tinubu had signed the new minimum wage into law on July 29, 2024, after meeting with leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria.
Lagos, Edo pay
Speaking with Punch correspondent on Saturday, the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, said the state had been paying more than the minimum wage before it was passed into law.
He said, “When you look at the minimum wage that was paid in Lagos before, the least state worker earned about N77,000. So, if they said the minimum wage is now N70,000, we have no problem with it at all because Lagos has been paying more than that, and we will continue to pay.”
The Edo State Government also said it had started paying the minimum wage.
Kwara, Kano, others set up committees
On August 1, 2024, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State, who also doubles as the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, set up an 18-member tripartite committee to work out modalities for the new minimum wage payment.
The Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, said the committee, comprising representatives from the state government, labour unions, and the Organised Private Sector, had started meeting.
Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano also set up an advisory committee on the new minimum wage, while the Jigawa State Government set up a 10-man minimum wage committee on Thursday, August 8.
Similarly, the Borno State Government recently inaugurated a 22-member panel, while the Ondo State government said its committee on the new minimum wage was working hard to ensure its implementation.
The Oyo State Commissioner for Information, Dotun Oyelade, also said the state set up a committee a few months ago to advise the government on the matter.
He said, “Oyo State government set up a committee a few months ago, comprising labour stakeholders and government officials, to advise on the implementation of the minimum wage.”
The Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, on Friday, said the state set up a committee before the Federal Government signed the bill into law.
“We are making provisions for the salary increase in line with the new minimum wage,” he added.
We can’t pay – Gombe, Kogi
However, the Gombe State Governor and Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, Inuwa Yahaya, said the lean allocation to the state would make it difficult for him to pay the new wage.
Speaking on Tuesday during a meeting with stakeholders on the nationwide protest, ‘#EndBadGovernance, Yahaya said, “I cannot pay the N70,000 minimum wage, and I suspect many other states are in the same predicament.”
Similarly, the Kogi State Commissioner for Finance, Ashiwaju Ashiru Idris, said no date had been fixed for the implementation of the minimum wage by the state.
Responding to our correspondent’s inquiry, the commissioner said he had no information about when the state would commence payment.
