The Nigeria Labour Congress is insisting that state governors can afford to pay a minimum wage above N60,000 by curbing corruption and reducing the high cost of governance in their states.
This is contained in a statement released by the NLC spokesperson, Benson Upah, while reacting to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum’s claim that the proposed N60,000 as minimum wage by the Federal Government is unsustainable.
The NLC maintained that the Governors have acted in bad faith, stressing that it is unheard of for such a statement to be issued to the world in the middle of an ongoing negotiation, saying it is certainly in bad taste.
The NLC disclosed that allocations from the Federation Account
have increased from 700billion naira to 1.2trillion naira, significantly boosting state revenues.
The statement said that governors could afford to pay a reasonable national minimum wage by cutting the high cost of governance, minimising corruption, and prioritising workers’ welfare, stressing that a national minimum wage is a baseline that no employer should pay below, and designed to protect the weakest and poorest workers.
The NLC also frowned at government policies such as fuel subsidy removal, currency devaluation, energy tariff hikes by 250%, and interest rate hikes by 26.5%, noting that these measures hurt the economy and the poor.
