N30,000 minimum wage: Governors’ sack threat sparks OUTRAGE

ANGRY reactions have trailed the declaration by governors that they cannot pay the N30,000 minimum wage contained in the report of the Tripartite Committee submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari last week. In different reactions yesterday, groups and individuals, including Ijaw leaders, a former scribe of the Arewa Consultative Forum’s Political Committee, Alhaji Mohammed Abdulrahman, former Kaduna State governor, Alhaji Balarabe Musa and former Cross Rivers State governor, Mr. Donald Duke, spoke against the threat by governors to retrench workers if they must pay the new minimum wage. The governors had stated their position on the issue after a meeting the Nigeria Governors’ Forum held in Abuja on Wednesday.

In his reaction to the issue yesterday former Kaduna State governor, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to compel state governors to pay the proposed minimum wage from their monthly statutory allocations and “end the unjustifiable threat of sacking workers.” This, he said, the President must do in order to reflect his genuine populist concerns. In Musa’s opinion, labour leaders ought to be demanding a minimum of N60,000 as minimum wage if they are to be realistic about the welfare of lowly-paid workers. He said: “The President of Nigeria should prove his populist position and compel all these governors who receive monthly federal statutory allocations to pay workers the N30,000 minimum wage they are demanding for.

“I believe that everyone knows that a family of five needs at least N60,000 for feeding, transport and other needs. “We can never address the prevailing mass poverty and bolster workers’ productivity in a situation where some governors are making dangerous threats over demand for a mere N30,000 minimum wage.” Expressing anger over state governors’ threat, a former Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum’s Political Committee, Alhaji Mohammed Abdulrahman, berated governors for joking with their responsibilities, saying that many of them could end up in jail for betraying the people’s cause.

He said: “These politicians called governors are still playing recklessly with their responsibilities to the people because they have forgotten that they are servants of the people, and ‘We The People’ are their employers.’’ A lawyer, civil rights activist and former National Secretary of Labour Party of Nigeria, Kayode Ajulo, described the governors’ threat to sack workers on account of the minimum wage as an empty boast. He said that existing laws make the governors’ threat unrealistic as the courts may compel them to pay much more as legal damages if the governors breach the laws under which workers were engaged by their various states. “It’s not only an empty boast, it is one that one should not ordinarily dignify with a response.

The terms under which government workers are hired and the conditions for their firing are embodied in statutes,” he said. “It stands to reason that they would resist any attempt by governors to fire them except in accordance with their conditions of service. “Also it may be more expensive to have to cough out all emoluments that will be direct consequences of such willful disengagements. “Having said that, I wish to encourage the workers to not only be vigilant but to also be proactive by ensuring that governors within the ranks of the anti- 30,000 minimum wage group are not voted back into office. “They must take assurances from everyone who aspires into the office of a Governor that he or she would accede to the demand for the minimum of wage of N30,000 or more,” Ajulo stated.

Speaking in a similar vein, constitutional lawyer and human rights crusader, Mr. Inibehe Effiong asserted that state governors have no justification issuing threats over workers’ legitimate demand for N30,000 minimum wage. He said: “The governors have no basis to make such inflammatory statement. We expect governors to render account of their bogus security votes, allowances and other outrageous benefits. “The issue is not paucity of funds but the unbridled profligacy of the governors.

Any governor who cannot pay N30,000 minimum wage should resign.” ‘Pay new wage or quit’ The Chairman of the Aba Unit of Civil Liberties Organisation, Dr. Charles Chinekezi, advised governors who cannot cope with the new minimum wage to quit, saying that he expected the new minimum wage to be more than N30,000. Chinekezi said: “What I expected the federal and state governors to pay their workers is N40,000 because that is the minimum wage that any human being can be paid at this time of economic hardship in the country.

“Do governors want to run human beings or do they want to run baboons? What is N30, 000? Both the federal, state and local governments should be able to pay the least worker under them the N30, 000 that the workers’ unions are demanding for, and it is not negotiable. “If they say they cannot pay, they are simply being mischievous. If you cannot employ a human being, then you are not able to employ him. But if you must employ him in any capacity, you must be able to pay him at least N30, 000. Anything below that is out of the way. “Saying that they want to downsize to be able to pay is rubbish. Anybody who is in the service is somebody that you need. If they cannot pay someone, they shouldn’t employ them. “They have money to pay and there should be a uniform standard across board.

It will be baseless asking workers to go and negotiate with their respective state governors on what they can pay. In Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, an activist and founder of Integrity Group, a civil society organisation, Livingstone Wechie, urged the state governments to rob minds with the Federal Government on the best way they could pay the bills, considering the fact that wage bills of states are paid from the federal allocation and not from internally generated revenue. Wechie advised governors to move closer to Edo State and find out how they have been able to sustain the payment of N25,000 minimum wage since the inception of the incumbent administration rather than threatening to downsize their state workforce. He insisted that upward review of Nigerian workers’ salaries is long overdue, especially following the harsh economic realities in the country.

Wechie urged labour to stand their ground and not push back as their agitation is apt and strategic. He called on them to use the situation as a condition for deciding who governs their states from 2019. He said: “The situation of Nigeria workers is ridiculous and pathetic. It is within what could be called a state of servitude. “To the best of my knowledge, governors of states do not pay workers from internally generated revenue, but with funds from federal allocation. “It is unfortunate that more than 90 per cent of Nigeria states are not trying well enough to function as states.

Some of them are not even qualified to function as local government. “As it were, you cannot insist on maintaining your status as a state when you cannot also shoulder the responsibilities of the financial obligations that go with it. “Nigerian workers have been subjected to this level of frustration in the face of increasing lock by the political class, in giving salaries that cannot pay the school fees of their children, health, feeding and shelter, whereas a governor in a national daily that luxury vehicles and private jets are compulsory for governors and that it cannot be negotiated.

“They are concerned about their luxury but will not give workers their pay. “Having said this, my submission is that I am behind labour to insist that now that it is election time, they should step up their demand, bargain and campaign and insist that now that governors have threatened that they will sack workers in their states in order to reduce them to the size that they can pay, that threat will act like a mirror that any governor that cannot stick to the demand of labour should be voted out in next year’s elections, as he is not qualified to be in office. “If they don’t have this opportunity properly explored in this election period, nobody will listen to them after now.

“So, labour should for once remain resolute in their demand. Any state that feels it cannot pay should negotiate with the Federal Government on how revenues could be made available for the payment of workers. “A worker is deserving of his wages. It is not a privilege; it is a right. As a matter of fact, N30,000 is too small in the sense of the current economic conditions. “I am even proposing N100,000 minimum wage to at least to be able to meet up with not less than $10 per day.” “The time for Labour to get government at all levels to get things done is now, and there should be no compromise on this. “Any governor who insists on not paying or sacking workers should not be given another chance to the government house of such state in 2019.” Ijaw leaders, Duke, others proffer solution to impasse Ijaw leaders yesterday called for the decentralization of minimum wage to end the controversies surrounding periodic increase in salaries of civil and public servants in the country.

The leaders said it was unfair to place federal and state workers on the same category of minimum wage, insisting that each state should be allowed to determine a minimum wage it is capable of paying its workers. An elder statesman and opinion leader in Bayelsa State, Chief Thompson Okorotie, said decentralization was the way out of the quagmire. He, however, suggested that if the Federal Government insisted on centralizing the wage matter, it should be ready to review revenue allocation formula to give more money to states. He said with the current realities where about 27 states could not pay the subsisting N18,000 minimum wage, it was impossible to demand payment of N30,000 wage from states. He said: “Civil servants are the engine room of development. No political programme can succeed without dedicated civil servants. So they have a right. But it is also important to know that there has to be capability to pay.

Already, statistics shows that even the last one that former President Goodluck Jonathan did, 27 states have not been able to pay it. Now you are talking about doubling that amount. “I would have suggested that when they arrive at the decision at the federal level, that should be for the federal civil servant. They should also tell the Labour to negotiate at the state level with their respective state governments. “The state civil servant is different from the federal.

What the state is capable of paying should be handled differently. It is unfair to arrive at the amount at the top and impose it on the states.” Also the immediate past President, Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, Udens Eradiri, said restructuring was the panacea for wage controversies in the country. Eradiri said states have different financial capacities and should be allowed to determine their minimum wage. He said: “A worker in Lagos should be able to earn higher. A worker in Kano and Oyo states cannot be earning the same thing as a worker in Bayelsa, Delta and Benue.

“The issue of minimum wage is a further call for restructuring of this country to the point where every state can determine according to its income what its workers will earn. This system is obsolete. “Immediately you increase the minimum wage, it will affect fuel, transportation, goods, hotel bills, and at the end of the day, it is a cycle. So, we need to restructure. Now, state governments are borrowing money to pay salaries. So, how do you fund the minimum wage? Very soon, we will get to the point where no institution will lend money to Nigeria. The country is already grinding to a halt. We need to restructure.” Former Cross River State governor and presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr. Donald Duke, called on the Federal Government to find a comprehensive and long term solution to the lingering minimum wage crisis in the country.

He said the current “fire brigade” response was tantamount to giving a short term solution to a long term problem. Such an approach, he said, is inherently faulty and unsustainable, hence the incessant resurgence of the issue with every federal government administration. He therefore advocated a holistic and systemic approach to addressing the issue, stressing that “the best approach to solving this lingering problem is to identify and address the real needs of civil servants such as food, housing, transportation, health, children’s education, security, rather than focusing on salary increase.”

Duke urged government to involve all the stakeholders, including the organised private sector and state governments in the negotiation process as they have an equally important stake in that they also employ reasonable number of workers. He called for a periodic review of salaries every 10 years, taking into cognizance variables such as inflation, as anything to the contrary could have negative economic consequences, including but not limited to downsizing the labour force The presidential candidate advised government to invest more of its energy into creating wealth by developing a production economy rather than a consumption one.

The immediate past chairman of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Plateau State Branch, Ralph Monye, said: “I want to believe that the N30,000 minimum wage they are talking about here is already an agreement. “If it is an agreement, our governors have no option but to honour the agreement for peace to reign. “On the other hand, If it is true that the state government cannot pay the money and that is a genuine excuse, I think labour should honour the option for governors to downsize the labour force for them to pay the new minimum wage. “In any disagreement like this, there should be give and take from both parties for an amicable resolution of the dispute. “Governors must honour this wage agreement between federal government and labour, but if they have genuine reason to say they can’t pay, then labour should take the option of downsizing.”

Mr. Steve Aluko of Civil Liberty Organisation said: “On moral and constitutional ground, it is wrong for any state governor to say they cannot pay their workers N30,000 per month. “I want to believe that the Nigerian Governor’s Forum is a legally constituted body and the new minimum wage too is legal and legitimate. “It will be an act of wickedness on the part of the governors to say they can’t pay this money to their own workers. “In the first place, the review of this minimum wage is long overdue. Labour has tried to have given the Buhari administration enough time to plan for this. “If labour is to follow agreement on wage review, it should have been done since 2016. But because government pleaded for time, the review was allowed to delay till now. “I even commend labour for not demanding that the new minimum wage be paid in arrears.”