…Federal Government N70,000.00

…Lagos, Rivers States N85,000.00

…Ogun, Gombe, Ondo, Kogi, Others to Pay Over N70,000.00

The political play around the payment of the national minimum wage to workers in Nigeria has begun to take different forms with the bold moves of some state governors who have started announcing the amount of money their states can afford to pay. Many of the states are yet to make theirs known while some are still struggling with the payment of the previous minimum wage.

The road to having a reviewed minimum wage has always been tumultuous. The organised labour began the full demand for an increased minimum wage last year after the removal of the subsidy for petroleum products by President Bola Tinubu at his inauguration. Even though the 2019 minimum wage act already required a review every five years, the need for the review became even more pressing when the country’s devaluation and the economic effects of the eliminated subsidy resulted in high commodity prices and inflation, which reduced purchasing power and increased living expenses.

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, two organised labour unions, had to exert pressure on the Federal Government to raise the minimum wage for workers nationwide from the current N33,000 to N497,000 considering the economic realities. However, the federal government accused the labour union of not proposing a minimum salary with economic viability. Long-drawn negotiations ensued. Labour leaders adjusted their initial demand to N250,000, and the federal government agreed to pay N60,000. A stalemate followed leading to a declaration of an indefinite strike action by labour across the country.

After back and forth, both parties agreed on N70,000 as the minimum wage with an alleged caveat that there would be no increment in fuel prices across the country. On July 29th, President Bola Tinubu signed the new minimum wage into law, with the additional caveat that the act must always be reviewed every two years instead of five.

The signing of the minimum wage reportedly caught some state governors off-guard as they insisted that they could not afford to pay such money, urging the federal government to allow each state to determine their abilities in the payment of the salaries in their respective states.

As time went by, many states started to announce salary increases while keeping the N70,000 threshold; some federal states also announced plans to go above that, a move that seemingly made the implementation look like a competition on who was ready to beat the other in satisfying their workers.

Lagos, Rivers, Ogun, and other states to pay more than N70,000.
On October 16, 2024, the Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, while speaking on Channels TV, announced that his administration was ready to pay N85,000 as the minimum wage in the state. Mr. Sanwo-Olu went on to say that the state’s wage increase is based on affordability and reality rather than competition with other states. “It’s not competition, so I’m not going to say that we’re paying more than some other people; it’s a function of affordability and a function of capacity,” the governor said.

However, the Lagos State Public Service Joint Negotiating Council has said the governor did not completely consult it in the process of reviewing the minimum wage; as a result, they were not expecting the announcement of the wage. Although they attended the meeting the government invited them to discuss the minimum wage, the Union clarified that they were unable to move forward because other pertinent stakeholders were not present. They explained that despite that, the governor went ahead to announce the increment of the salary.

Earlier, the Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, had announced N77,000.00 as the minimum wage for workers in the state. The announcement was made on October 15, 2024. The state governor further stated that the development was its responsiveness and commitment to the welfare of its workers and the generality of the people of the state.

Meanwhile, on October 18, 2024, Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara approved the payment of N85,000.00 as the new minimum wage for civil servants employed by the state. The approval was made public following a meeting with the state’s Joint Public Service Negotiating Council and pertinent stakeholders.

Similarly, Gombe state approved a minimum wage of N71,451.15, while Ondo state Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa announced a minimum wage increase of N73,000. Usman Ododo, the governor of Kogi State, also approved the N72,500 minimum wage for civil servants in the state, effective immediately.

Oyo, Anambra, Osun to Maintain N70,000 Benchmark

In contrast, states like Oyo, Anambra, Katsina, Ebonyi, Adamawa, Borno, and Osun have agreed to remain on the benchmark of N70,000 as agreed by the federal government.
However, some states like Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Zamfara, and Jigawa have yet to announce their implementation of the minimum wage.

Agreement Conundrum Between FG and the Labour Union
Despite the implementation of the national minimum wage across the states, there is still a gap in the agreement labour reached with President Tinubu that “if labour accepted N70,000.00 there will not be further increases in the price of fuel across the country. Fuel prices have been on an upward swing ever since the government stopped paying subsidies on the product and prices are now being determined by market forces.

Labour leaders who sang the praises of President Tinubu when he placed N70,000.00 on the table are now brimming with anger and feeling betrayed by the government. The Nigerian National Petroleum Commission has increased the price of fuel two times lately, a development that contradicted an agreement the labour union claimed they had with the President during the negotiation for minimum wage. The labour union claimed the president promised not to increase the fuel price, hence their agreement of N70,000.

As fuel prices rose steeply, labour leaders demanded that prices be reversed to the initial level stated in their agreement with the federal government. It appears another round of negotiations has ensued with labour having a closed-door meeting with the federal government team, led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, last week Wednesday. With the growing concern over the outcome of the labour demand, and its next move. It is quite unclear what the next move of the labour unions would be as the politics around the minimum wage deepens.