NLC Tells Workers to Vote against Governors Opposed to N30,000 Minimum Wage

• Insists on implementation of N30,000 minimum wage

Amid opposition by some governors, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday said it would not succumb to the antics of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) to frustrate the implementation of N30, 000 minimum wages.

Rather than taking issues with the governors, the NLC said it would focus on achieving the task, thus urging  it’s members to be resolute to vote out any governor who breaches the law after President Muhammadu Buhari signs.

The National President of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba made the remarks in Ado-Ekiti yesterday at the 75th birthday of the former Chairman of the Medical and Health Union of Nigeria (MHUN), Ekiti chapter, Com. Johnson Ogunseeyin.

Besides the NLC president, Ogunseeyin’s 75th anniversary was attended by all labour leaders in the state, led by the NLC Chairman, Comrade Ade Adesanmi and Comrade Blessing Oladele, all of whom testified to a life of struggle the celebrant lived during his days in service.

At Ogunseeyin’s 75th anniversary, Wabba described the governor’s position as an afterthought, declaring that the position canvassed by governors that the states could not abide by N30, 000 minimum wages was a distraction that would not distract the entire workforce across the country.

Wabba insisted that the labour unions would focus on achieving the task, thereby urging his members to be resolute to vote out any governor who defies the law after signing into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The governors after the report proposing N30, 000 minimum wage was submitted to President Buhari, had made their position known that many of the states lack the financial wherewithal to pay such amount.

He said six governors were represented on the tripartite committee composed by the federal government to argue the issue of minimum wage and that it took the labour over a year to arrive at a midway wage of N30, 000.

On this ground, Wabba said it was inhuman for governors “to turn around and say they have no capacities to pay. I consider this governors’ position as a trick that was not new to us. There was no agitation about labour that never experienced such, but we consider it an afterthought.