Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, on Thursday insisted that both the federal and state governments can pay the national minimum wage if looted monies are recovered.
The organised labour and the Nigerian government have yet to reach an agreement on the new minimum wage with the latter rejecting the former’s N62,000 offer. During the last meeting held by the Tripartite Committee on the New Minimum Wage on Friday in Abuja, labour reduced its demand to N250,000 from N494,000, while the Federal Government increased its offer from N60,000 to N62,000.
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The proposed minimum wage may have to wait until 2nd July because the National Assembly is on holiday. In a TV interview monitored by Radio Now’s newsdesk, the senior lawyer asked the Nigerian authorities to muster the political will to pay the minimum wage.
Similarly, the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), through its National President, Aminu Muazu-Maifata, says the local government administrations in the country cannot afford the proposed minimum wage by the Organised Labour.
He said with the present allocation from the Federal Accounts, no local government administration can pay workers the ₦62,000 minimum wage proposal by the Federal Government let alone the ₦250,000 demand of the Organised Labour, adding that some local governments have not started paying their workers ₦30,000 which was approved as minimum wage in 2019.
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