Claim:  36 state governors of the federation have already offered workers the minimum wages they are willing to pay in their respective states.
 
Verdict: False
 
As the minimum wage negotiations between organised labour and the federal government continue, there have been claims that the 36 state governors of the federation have already offered workers the minimum wages they are willing to pay in their respective states.

 
On June 10, an X (formerly Twitter) user with the user name DeeOneAyekooto posted the purported amounts each state claimed they were willing to pay as the minimum wage to workers in their states.
 
Titled “What each of the 36 is offering to pay as minimum wage,”  the post gathered over 2000 reposts, 4000 likes, and 1000 replies, and most respondents agreed with the claim.

 
A Similar claim was also published on Nairaland on the same day, insinuating that the 36 state governors have concluded on how much they are willing to pay regardless of the potential agreement between the federal government and organised labour.

 
“While some states like Rivers, Lagos, and Borno offered to pay N80k, N75k, and N70k respectively, states like Zamfara and Kogi offered to pay N30k and N35k respectively.

See what the various states are reportedly offering to pay as (the) minimum wage”, the website quoted.
 

These claims are coming amid the back-and-forth negotiations on the National minimum wage between the federal government and organised labour, as the state governor has raised concerns about the sustainability of the labour’s demands.

 
Federal Government, Organised Labour, and the Minimum wage 

 
The demand for increased minimum wage organised labour has been one of the major discourse in the country since last year, after the inauguration of President Bola Tinubu, who, at his first address to the nation, removed the subsidy of petroleum products. The president and his economic team subsequently devalued the country’s currency, a move that led to a high cost of commodities and put the country’s inflation at 33.69%, thereby eroding the purchasing power and raising the cost of living in the country.

 
Considering the economic realities, organised labour made an initial demand that  the workers new minimum wage across the country be jerked up from the current N33,000 to N497,000. As the negotiation continued between the labour leaders and the government, the labour union leaders adjusted their initial demand  to N250,000, stating that they were open to further negotiation 

 
Amidst a series of negotiations between the labour leaders and the government, the federal government proposed to pay N60,000, but the offer was turned down by organised labour.

 
Following the disagreement between the two parties, the labour union declared an indefinite strike, which took place on June 3rd and 4th, of this year  before the intervention of the federal government. To give respite to the workers, the federal government offered N62000, however, the labour leaders frowned at the development as they claimed it did not speak to the economic realities of the country.

 
Verification 

 
To verify the claim that  each state governor has announced the minimum wage they can afford, NDR conducted a keyword search on the information, and we discovered that no reputable media houses reported the claim.

 
Although there were media reports here , here and here that 36 state governors posited  that the ₦60,000 minimum wage proposal by the Federal Government is not sustainable and cannot be implemented, there are no official reports from the governors and there spokespersons to establish the claim that they have announced the amounts they are willing to pay as minimum wage.

 
To confirm the claim, NDR contacted the Kwara state governor, who is also the Chairman of the Governors Forum, Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq, via his Special Assistant on Communications, Ibraheem Abdullateef.

 
In his response,  he directed us to a tweet by the state Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, where he debunked the claim, stating that  it is a false information as far as the state is concerned. “Please note that this is FAKE NEWS as far as Kwara is concerned. You guys should calm down, pls.”, he tweeted.

 
Conclusion 
Therefore,  the purported  claim that the 36 state governors have announced the  amounts  they are willing to pay as the minimum wage to workers in their states,  according to our investigation, is False