The 36 state governors
have said that they can no longer pay the N18,000 minimum wage that was signed
into law in March 2011 by former President Goodluck Jonathan, owing to the poor
state of the economy.
Organised labour in its immediate reaction, however,
kicked against the governors’ stance, saying workers are ready to shut down the
country, if the governors push them into it.
Rising
from a crucial meeting that ended at the early hours of yesterday, at the Old
Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja under the umbrella of Nigerian
Governors Forum, NGF, the governors said that dwindling prices of oil had
drastically affected their states’ income.
Specifically,
they said that the burden of the wage was lighter when oil sold at $126 as
against the current $41 per barrel.
They,
therefore, sought audience with President Muhammadu Buhari on the economy,
resolving that the only way out of the quagmire was to diversify the economy
towards agriculture and mining.
Reading
the communique issued at the end of the meeting, Chairman of the Forum and
Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari hinted that the Forum also backed the
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over the N1.4 trillion sanction
on MTN. According
to him, the governors agreed that the fine must be paid in full.
-Vanguard
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