As the nation awaits a new new minimum wage, a former spokesman for Asiwaju Tinubu Campaign and current coordinator, Asiwaju Renewed Mandate, Southeast, Dr. Josef Onoh, has charged the South East Governors to pay any amount that will be decided in their various states.
This is even as the former lawmaker urged the people of the region to open their hearts and embrace the lofty policies of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
Onoh, who stated this during a parley with journalists in this Enugu on Tuesday, said the federal allocation accruing to the states when added to the internally generated revenue of the states were enough to pay the proposed wage benchmark.
Recall that federal government had on Friday increased the proposed national minimum wage from N60,000 to N62,000, while the organised labour lowered its demand from N494,000 to N250,000.
But earlier on Friday the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) said that although a new minimum wage is due, the proposed N60,000 is not sustainable.
Reacting to the governors’ position, Onoh called on the governors to reconsider their position and work together with the federal government to move the country forward.
“In making this offer, there are notes of consideration that government put into place. When you are thinking about the national minimum wage, you have to be also thinking about the private sector. Is it something they can afford to pay and sustain in future without it crippling business?
“Businesses will definitely collapse if the private sector is not able to pay the minimum salaries. And if businesses collapse, we’re returning back to square zero, which is what the federal government is fighting against.
“If the federal government yields to the demands, can the states also sustain it? This is why state governors have to be the ones to ensure that these wages are paid.
“It’s unfair for Southeast state governors to claim they can’t pay the N62,000 minimum wage as proposed by the federal government, which is already saddled with so much responsibilities.
“If you check the money the Southeast governors just got in one year alone, you will agree with me that it is more than enough to pay their workers the N62,000 the federal government has proposed.
“If the Southeast governors do the needful, the federal government is already initiating such programmes like transportation and agriculture to help bring down inflation. Already, over 3000 CNG vehicles have been ordered by the president to reduce the cost of transportation,” he said.
