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Tag: minimum wage

  • Signing of minimum wage bill another campaign promise fulfilled, says APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday branded the signing into law of the new national minimum wage by President Muhammadu Buhari as yet another fulfillment of the campaign promises of the President to boost the living standard of Nigerians especially workers.

    The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu said in a statement in Abuja that  while  Nigerian workers deserve a new, improved and implementable minimum wage in view of current economic realities, “the welfare of workers has remained a top priority of the President Buhari-led APC administration as exhibited in the federal government bailouts to state governments to pay workers salary, housing schemes for civil servants among other welfare packages.”

    He  congratulated stakeholders who  “ensured the achievement of this laudable feat, particularly the National Assembly, state governors, the Amma Pepple-led tripartite committee, labour/trade unions and indeed Nigerian workers.”

    “This is another solid demonstration of a President who matches his words with action. Nigerians will recall the President had severally assured of a new and improved national minimum wage for workers,” he said.

    “The assent of the N30,000 minimum wage by the president is indeed another election promise delivered.”

    The Buhari Media Organization spoke along the same line,saying “the economy is stimulated when workers’ salaries are improved and paid.

    “An average civil servant in Nigeria has about five dependents, so the trickle-down effect will reach their co-dependents.”

    Chairman of the group, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, said that Buhari has consistently shown that he is the workers’ friend and that he cares about the welfare of the ordinary people.

    They said that the he President’s decision to sign the upward review of the minimum wage even after the election, showed that he is not  an ovation-seeking President, but rather  a pragmatic leader who wanted to ensure that there is budgetary provision to accommodate the increase in the minimum wage.

  • Adamawa teachers to expect N32,000

    The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Adamawa State Wing, has expressed confidence that the incoming administration would pay N32,000 minimum wage to workers in the state.

    Mr Rodney Nathan, Chairman of the state chapter, who commended  President Muhammadu Buhari, for signing into law the N30,000 new National Minimum Wage for workers, however noted that the state workers were looking forward to receiving N32,000 as minimum wage.

    Nathan said that the workers’ optimism was drawn from the Governor-elect, Ahmadu Fintiri’s electioneering promise to pay workers N32,000 minimum wage.

    He said that Fintiri, being a man of his words, would not renege on his promise.

    He called on all teachers in the state to support the incoming administration in its vision to ameliorate the plight of teachers in particular and all workers in general.

    The union leadership also urged the incoming administration to address some of the challenges faced by the teachers in the state.

    He mentioned lack of implementation of promotion, upgrade of teachers, transport leave grants, among others as some of the major challenges facing teachers in the state.

    He said the new minimum wage would go a long way in improving the standards of living of a Nigerian worker.

    He also urged government at all levels to reinvigorate the civil service, to get the best out of the civil service.

    He decried redundancy occasioned by some government organisations, adding that such had killed staff development sprit of workers in such organisations.

    He urged workers in the state to put in their best to match the wage increase with productivity.

  • Ex-Minister expresses fears over ability of states to pay new minimum wage

    A former Minister of Information, Prince Tony Momoh, has expressed fears that the new N30, 000 minimum wage, signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 18 would lead to chaos.

    Momoh, who is also a chieftain of the APC party made the statement this while addressing newsmen on Friday in Abuja as part of activities to mark his 80th birthday.

    According to him, while he is happy over the new wage, he holds the view that it will lead to a situation where many states will not be able to pay and this will lead to industrial unrest and strikes.

    “Minimum wage is not a living wage. My prediction is that the N30, 000 minimum wage will cause chaos because many state governments that were paying N7, 500 before N18, 000 was introduced could not pay then.

    “A lot of them are currently finding it difficult to pay N18, 000 now. They are already saying they can’t pay and this will lead to strikes. When that happens, the nation is in trouble.

    “The N30, 000 minimum wage is not a living wage. What is the percentage of the workers in Nigeria that are entitled to the N30, 000 minimum wage? What is the percentage of the public servants compared to the percentage of the entire working population in Nigeria?”

    Momoh, who is also a lawyer, also spoke on the pronouncement the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on the former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Walter Onnoghen.

    He said that the argument of some lawyers that Onnoghen shouldn’t have been taken to CCT was not tenable, arguing that such lawyers didn’t know what they were talking about.

    “ I don’t believe that it is a case of witch-hunt. I advised him (Onnoghen) to resign when the case started. That would have saved him from the embarrassment,”

    Momoh said that the CCT and the Code of Conduct Tribunal, established by part one of the fifth schedule of the constitution had powers to deal with sitting presidents and governors.

    “Part two deals with those who are subjected to its jurisdiction, which is the President, Vice-President, CJN, down to councillors. The CCT is a disciplinary body.

    “Onnoghen is a public servant before he became the CJN. His case was directed to the Code of Conduct Bureau, which transferred it to CCT,” he said.

    Also speaking on the permutation about the composition of the leadership position for the 9th National Assembly, Momoh said that the reliance of the APC on party supremacy to impose its candidates would not work.

    He said that claims of party supremacy could only be effective in a parliamentary not presidential system of government because the political party with the majority would always form the government in the former.

    Momoh recalled that since 1999, efforts by political parties to impose their candidates on the nation’s parliament had always been resisted by federal lawmakers.

    He added that the National Assembly had its own personality that it always protected, in spite of political party differences, adding that party’s choice could only succeed if there was cooperation and not by imposition.

    “In 1999, Evans Enwerem was not the choice of the senators. They wanted Chuba Okadigbo. So, Enwerem did not last when he emerged. Also in 2015, the party wanted Femi Gbajabiamila but Yakubu Dogara got it.

    “Since 1999, there have always been problems between the legislators and the party’s candidates. The legislators come together to pursue common interests and party supremacy is obviously not one of them.

    “In the parliamentary system, the party with the majority will dominate leadership positions in the parliament. The prime minister is also a member of the parliament.”

    The former minister also stressed the need for restructuring of Nigeria as a way of ensuring good governance in the country, arguing that Nigeria was too top heavy in administering governance.

    Momoh said that the country needed to decongest the political space, saying that the National Assembly made law in 93 areas comprising the exclusive and concurrence lists.

    “In federations worldwide, we don’t need more than 18. The rest should go to regions. They know what to do with it.

    “The senate will become the only law-making arm of the federation while the House of Representatives should go to the regions and be making laws for their people.

    “When this happens, economic deregulation is automatic because everybody will contribute to run the centre.’’

    Momoh advised media practitioners to acquire necessary knowledge from the constitution of the country for them to effectively perform their roles as watchdogs to government and to enlighten the citizens. (NAN)

  • Minimum wage: I will pay whatever FG approves – Wike

    Rivers state Governor, Nyesom Wike on Friday said he would comply with the provisions of the new minimum wage law as approved by the National Assembly and recently ratified by President Mohammadu Buhari.

    Wike who spoke through the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Emma Okah, said, Rivers state Government will pay whatever is approved by the Federal Government.

    The Governor had earlier in various fora in the State unequivocally announced that the State will be the first to pay whatever was finally settled for as the new wage.

    Read also: Edo promises to pay minimum wage

    President Buhari recently signed into Law the N30, 000 new basic wage earlier approved for by the National Lawmakers.

    It is expected that the Implementation will begin shortly after the inauguration of new administration in the country,  on May 29, 2019.

  • Union decries IMF’s opposition to minimum wage

    The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has condemned the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) opposition to minimum wage existence across the world.

    It alleged that the IMF has continued to promote the unfounded claim that higher minimum wages prompt job cuts and hurt workers, putting at risk economic growth.

    IMF in a recent article said an overly generous wage may prompt employers to cut jobs.

    But ITUC General Secretary, Sharan Burrow thinks otherwise. She submitted: “It is disheartening to see that the IMF continues to ignore a large body of evidence on the benefits of minimum wages for working people and the economy as a whole.  If the IMF is serious about addressing inequality, it should abandon policy advice and loan conditions that have failed to generate economic growth. The economic evidence they claim is simply not there. Also absent is an acknowledgement that IMF interventions including attacks on minimum wages have deepened economic and social crises, not alleviated them.”

    ITUC insisted that the article  was based on selective evidence, which highlighted the bias of the authors, adding  that the article recognised that most empirical studies found positive or at most, very small negative relationship between minimum wages and employment levels.

  • TUC: N30, 000 minimum wage eroded by inflation

    Inflation has seriously affected the purchasing power of the N30, 000 National Minimum Wage recently approved by the Senate, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has said.

    Speaking with The Nation, TUC President Comrade Bobboi Kaigama said though the organised labour appreciates the approval of the new wage, the prices of commodities have gone up even when employers have yet to commence payment of the new wage.

    He said: “The N30, 000 monthly national minimum wage that we are even asking for, to a family of six actually amounts to less than N50 per meal per person. It is exclusive of utility bills, and school fees, among others.

    “Given our extended family system as Africans, we are also expected to, once in a while, extend hands of fellowship to parents, in-laws, relations, and friends who have lost their jobs, brothers and people of the same faith.”

    Kaigama expressed gratitude to some lawmakers, who he said kept to their promise to give the wage bill supersonic attention whenever it was brought before them.

    “To us, it means we still have men and women with milk of kindness left in them,” he said

    He, however, called on the Ninth Assembly and well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on governors to pay workers their salaries and pension as and when due to avoid crisis in the industrial sector, adding that workers have endured enough.

    “We warned those who feel they cannot pay the new wage to stay away from politics. And for those claiming that it is only when Value Added Tax (VAT) is increased that the government can pay, we advise them to drop such evil counsel,” Kaigama said.

    The TUC president commended the Federal Government, the lawmakers and the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) for seeing reason with the workers.

  • Eighth assembly’s baleful legacies

    As the eighth assembly winds down and feverish fever for agenda-setting for the ninth senate becomes infectious, I think it is important to examine where we are coming from. Although history has the final verdict, the eighth assembly is considered by many Nigerians as a disaster. And to them, there can be no greater heart-rending dirge than the fact that only about a third of the ‘like minds’ senators who yesterday behaved as if there would be no tomorrow would be returning  to the red chambers.

    The eighth assembly is a symptom of all that is wrong with Nigeria. To the greed-driven PDP and APC lawmakers, it is a house for deal-makers. To ex-President Obasanjo, it is a house of ‘unarmed robbers”. To Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), “for its refusal to pass the 2018 budget almost halfway into the year, the 8th senate is probably the worst we have ever had since the return to civilian rule”.

    To our own Biodun Jeyifo, the 8th assembly is a ‘predatory legislature’ for paying its members the highest salaries in the history of modern parliaments’. To the influential ‘The Economist’, it is responsible for ‘the most unjust and lopsided pay structure in the world’.

    It’s inauguration on July 9, 2015 was preceded by a monumental scandal unknown to democracy elsewhere in the democratic world. Bukola Saraki, after cutting a deal which ceded the deputy senate presidency to the opposition, capitalized on the absence of 51 of his elected APC colleagues to be adopted senate president by 49 PDP senators and eight APC senators. Itse Sagay described Saraki’s coup as ‘a victory for impunity, a victory for fraud and a victory for political desperation and indiscipline’, while Auwalu Yadudu, former Dean of Faculty of Law, Bayero University Kano dismissed it as ‘lies in the face of democratic ideals’ since Saraki’s emergence stemmed from ‘a flawed election by a fraction of yet-to-be-constituted senate.

    For consolidation of power, the lawmakers must remain lawbreakers having started by substituting the existing Senate Rule 3 (3) (k) of the 2011-(All senators-elect shall participate in the nomination and voting for president and deputy president of the senate) which makes it mandatory for all members to participate in the process with a strange Senate  Rule 3 (3) (i) in the 2015 Orders-(All senators-elect are entitled to participate in the voting for senate president and deputy senate president) used for the election. Police interim report confirmed fraud and dragged the Saraki and Ekweremadu to court.

    Then following Dino Melaye’s specious argument that since the same rule was used in screening the ministers including the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, service chiefs and in passing the budget, “If the rule is fake, then the budget we have received is also fake and illegal”. The government developed cold feet. The law-breakers thereafter went ahead to pass another senate resolution saying the senate rules were not forged and directed their members in court to withdraw their case or risk sanctions.

    With that victory, the senators started to behave like ruffians.  On January 11, 2017,  the Nigerian Customs “intercepted and impounded a Range Rover SUV which carried documents that claimed its chassis number was “SALGV3TF3EA190243”, valued  at  N298 million, with an alleged fake documents presented by the driver showing payment of N8m as against expected customs duty of N74 million. It belonged to the senate president. Resorting to self-help, Hameed Ali, the Comptroller General of Customs, was ordered to appear in the upper house. Dino Melaye insisted he must appear wearing customs-general uniform despite Femi Falana’s argument that “neither the constitution not the rules of procedure of the senate has conferred on it the power to compel the CGC to wear customs uniform when he is not a serving customs officer”. The nation was told a few days later that the senate internal probe exonerated the senate president but found an un-named importer guilty.

    More rough tactics were soon brought to bear on the running of the senate. Kangiwa Umar, a highly principled former administrator of Kaduna State spoke of an influential senator, who used his company to import 1,200 metric tons of rice in 30 40-foot containers, fraudulently declared as yeast to evade payment of appropriate duties. And when Ali, the Customs Comptroller-General refused to release the seized items based on the dubious alibi provided by “the leader of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise & Tariff” to the effect that “his findings shows it was the clearing agent not the importer that called the goods ‘yeast’ instead of ‘rice’, he was harassed, intimidated and accused of corruption.

    Umar was not done. He went on to also allege that the same senator involved in the rice importation scandal also owns a company that secured a contract to dredge the Calabar Channel which the Bureau of Public Procurement has condemned as violating all due processes. Despite that there was no evidence the contract was ever executed, the senator “demanded and got a whopping $12.5million upfront payment from the NPA and even asked for a purported balance of $22million”.

    The eighth assembly, like others since 1999 when Dr. Bukola Saraki, fresh from a medical school, was appointed budget adviser by President Obasanjo is notorious for budget padding. The senate response to the critics of this illegal diversion of resources from critical projects such as Lagos- Ibadan expressway or the Second Niger Bridge to ill-implemented constituency projects has always been a threat to discipline a minister or impeach a vice president.

    The public didn’t need to wait for long to discover the constituency projects scheme was nothing but a rip-off. First, Abdul Mumin Jibrin, reacting to his removal as chairman of the appropriation committee of the house following a claim he ‘unilaterally padded the 2016 budget to the tune of N4.1 billion to his Kiru/Bebeji federal constituency in Kano State, attributed his travails to his inability “to admit into the budget, almost N30 billion personal requests from Mr. Speaker and the three other principal officers”.

    Not long after, a Civic Technology Organisation-BudgIT claimed that about N350billion appropriated by the National Assembly in respect of about 2,516 projects spread across the country in the last five years never took off even after full payment had been made. On July 17, 2016, The Nation in a report titled “Constituency Projects – a ritual of monumental waste” summarized the result of a survey of 436 projects including water bore-holes, rural electricity and roads projects and primary health centres designed to alleviate the suffering of the poor but abandoned across 16 states of the federation.

    The 8th assembly is also a house of greed. Following a newspaper report that governors-turned senators were collecting two salaries, the senate claimed its internal probe confirmed their esteemed members only collected their pensions. This was at a time about 26 of the 36 states could not pay minimum wage of N18, 000 with some in arrears of 8-12 months and at a time pensioners who had served the country with distinction were dying on the queue waiting for their unpaid pensions.

    The 8th assembly finally lost all by derailing the constitutional amendment project because Saraki and Dogara wanted to be members of the Council of State, enjoy immunity along with speakers of state legislatures who must also enjoy financial autonomy. They rejected devolution of power, preferring the current situation where we have about 88 items in the exclusive list and 33 in the concurrent list without a residual list, an arrangement that has rendered the states impotent while a dysfunctional centre makes a mess of functions such as roads, agriculture, health, education, and security that are best handled by states.

  • Hamonise minimum wage for quick assent – TUC tells NASS

    Mr Bobboi Kaigama, the President of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), on Monday called for quick hamonisation of the N30,000 national minimum wage bill to enable President Muhammadu Buhari assent to it.

    Kaigama spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on the implementation of the new minimum wage.

    NAN reports that the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress had urged the President to sign and implement the new wage before the end of the 8th National Assembly.

    The TUC president said that the House of Representatives and the Senate needed to harmonise the agreed sum and pass it to the President for his assent.

    ”The N30,000 figure is one, but the aspect of law might not be the same. There is the need to come together and harmonise, produce a clean copy and forward to Buhari to sign.

    ”If that is not done as soon as possible, it will be difficult for the President to sign and implement the agreed national minimum wage.

    ”The day Buhari signs the new minimum wage bill, it becomes a law effective from that day,” he said.

    The labour chief said that implementation would be seamless since the Federal Government had said that it included its provision in the budget, but might take a while in some states that had not included it in their budget.

    He urged the private sector not to delay its implementation as soon as the bill is enacted into law.

    The TUC president advised the government to look into the issues of punishment for minimum wage defaulters and frequent review of the process.

    He also said that Value Added Tax should not be tied to the implementation of the new wage, particularly in the public sector.

    ”VAT is paid by consumers; it is paid by the lower class, while the business conglomerates and corporate organisations don’t pay appropriate tax.

    ”It is unfair to tell workers who pays appropriate tax that you will tie VAT to minimum wage. The organised labour disagrees with the government,” he said.

    Kaigama said that labour would resist any plan to fund the new minimum wage through increase in VAT.

  • Breaking: Buhari receives report on Minimum Wage funding

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday received advisory report on how to fund the newly increased workers’ minimum wage.

    The bill to increase the minimum wage to N30, 000 is still before the National Assembly.

    Buhari received the report from the Technical Committee on the Implementation of the new minimum wage at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Buhari thanked the committee for submitting the report before the bill was passed into law.

    He assured that the government will expeditiously study the report towards its implementation.

  • Why Senate passed 30,000 minimum wage, by Ibrahim

    Chairman of Senate Committee on Labour and Productivity, Senator Abu Ibrahim, has thrown light on why the Senate passed N30,000 national minimum wage instead of adopting N27,000 proposed by the Federal Government.

    Senator Ibrahim, who was a member of the Senate ad-hoc committee assigned to work on the minimum wage bill, said the upper chamber concurred with the House of Representatives on the bill to avoid unnecessary delay and bickering in passing the bill.

    The House of Representatives passed N30, 000 new national minimum wage bill higher than the N27, 000 minimum wage bill President Muhammadu Buhari submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and passage.

    Ibrahim said that the passage of N30, 000 minimum wage was informed by the need to avoid the commotion likely to result from harmonization of the differences by the two chambers.

    The Katsina South senator noted if there was disagreement between the two chambers, it may lead to the National Assembly not passing the new national minimum wage for workers.

    He said when members of the Senate committee, during its deliberation on the bill, considered the difference between what the House of Representatives passed and what was submitted by the executive, a difference of N3000, the committee felt that it could be addressed after the passage of the Bill.

    Ibrahim noted that it was in view of this the committee recommended that after the passage of the new wage bill, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation, and Fiscal Commission, could review the federal allocation formula to give more fund to the States and Local governments.

    The review of the allocation formula, Ibrahim said, would enable the States and Local Governments to pay the new national minimum wage rather than waiting for the federal government to come to their rescue through granting them interventions funds.

    Ibrahim said, “We looked at it (bill), the difference of what the executive asked for is N3, 000 and the commotion that it will create if we disagree with the House of Representatives, we may not pass it, because we may have to go back and start again and go into harmonization

    “We are closing for budget defence. So we may end up leaving the National Assembly without finishing the minimum wage.

    “So we felt at the committee that it does not worth it, the problem that it will create for saving N3, 000.

    “Then, we brought another solution that the federal government revenue allocation should be looked into to make it possible for the states to be able to pay.

    “So, rather than the federal government giving them interventions, we can change the revenue allocation formula to give them more money, both local and state governments.”

    He went on: “We came up with additional suggestion after the N30, 000 minimum wage, we suggested that the revenue allocation should be looked into to make the states and local governments more viable.”

    The lawmaker promised to contribute his quota as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Labour to ensure that there is stability between the government and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

    He also stressed the need to develop a system of industrial harmony between NLC and the Federal Government.