N18, 000 minimum wage: Pay or resign, Labour tells govs

Posted by admin Governors, Headlines Sunday, June 26th, 2011

The organised labour has said that the Nigerians workers would not succumb to what it described as blackmail by state governors who hinge payment of the N18,00 minimum wage on mass sack, removal of fuel subsidy as well as review of the revenue allocation formula.

Nigeria Labour Congress said any governor who found it Herculean task to pay the new wage should resign and vacate the government house.
Against the background of the claims by the Governors’ Forum that the new wage was beyond the revenue of most of the states and subsequent pressure being mounted on President Goodluck Jonathan for the removal of oil subsidy and review of the revenue allocation formula in favour of the state, the congress stated that it was not ready to trade words with the governors because the issue bordered on the law of the land.

In essence, the state governors were asking the Federal Government to stop about N600 billion spent annually on fuel subsidy add to the revenue allocations which were shared monthly among the federal, state and local governments in the proportion of 52.68 per cent, 26.72 per cent and 20.60 per cent respectively.
It would be recalled that the twin issue of planned deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry and oil subsidy removal had in the past pitted the labour against the government with series of strikes trailing series of increase in fuel prices effected by the government which the labour see as groundwork for the deregulation policy.

NLC General Secretary, Owei Lakemfa said the state governors were merely blackmailing the Federal Government and labour, warning that their position lacked basis, because labour’s position was in consonance with the law. According to him, the payment of the new wage was not dependent on the whims and caprices of anybody, to say fuel price would have to be increased or revenue jerked up amounts to begging the issue.

“We know it is not all the governors are singing that song, it is also the right of labour to vote for appropriate action to checkmate the governors, they want anarchy but we will not vote for anarchy, but certainly we won’t accept mass sack of any sort as being threatened. “We are aware of the fact that what the governors want to give with the right hand in the new wage, they want to collect back with the left hand in the demand for fuel subsidy removal. But we tell them, this lamentation won’t work, leadership in Nigeria is not by conscription, it is not by force to be a governor or lawmaker, if you can’t deliver, get out of the government house and go away.

“If you are a governor or a senator and you find out that you can’t obey the law even as Chief Security Officer in your state and you can’t guarantee peace, go home rather than threatening the people with poverty and mass sack. They talk as if they have all the solution to people’s problem, when they get to position they will start singing a new song. We are watching and waiting,” Owei stated in an interview with Daily Sun.
He urged President Jonathan not to cave in to the antics of the governors because what they are trying to do was to blackmail the government maximally to get away with profligacy.

As at press time, the issue of the new wage had become a sore point in the relationship between the workers and state governments in Kano, Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe, Oyo, Nasarawa, FCT and Ondo, where the civil servants had already commenced action over non-payment of the N18,000 salary.

-Sunwp_posts