Why Benue, Kogi, others are not ready to pay minimum wage

Kogi, Abia, Imo and Benue are the states yet to show any sign of willingness to begin implementation of the national minimum wage in their states, a document obtained by The Guardian has revealed.

The list, which is in the custody of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), highlights the implementation stages of the national wage in all the states of the federation.

Deputy General Secretary of NLC, Bello Ismail, told The Guardian in Abuja that while most states are paying workers’ salaries, what is paid is not in tandem with agreed terms with state councils.

He said: “As far as the salaries of workers are concerned, most state governments are paying. Where we have a challenge is how much of the salaries are paid.

“In some states, they pay in percentages. In such a state, it is difficult to accuse such states of not paying, but what are they paying? In that context, labour cannot accuse state governments of not paying salaries, but some are not paying salaries in full.

“But labour recognises states, such as Lagos, Jigawa and Akwa Ibom for doing very well as far as payment of salaries is concerned.”

In the list, no substantial progress has been made by the governments of Abia, Kogi, Benue and Imo states, while Kano recently came out to declare its inability to continue the implementation, citing the ravaging effects of COVID-19 on its finances.

Bello disclosed that the outbreak of COVID-19 since March last year slowed the process of minimum wage negotiation, adding: “All the negotiations that were on had to be put on hold because of the pandemic. We have not been able to kick-start the process since then. Negotiations were on in states like Yobe and Kebbi until COVID-19 came.”