Oyo state Governor-Elect, Mr. Seyi Makinde has informed that his administration would not be able to pay the new National Minimum Wage of N30,000 just signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Makinde, while addressing reporters in Abuja after attending the induction programme for returning and newly elected governors made this disclosure, stressing that he intends to negotiate with the state branch of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
The governor elect, Makinde had earlier stated that it was wrong for the Nigeria Governors to be tagging Nigeria workers as unpatriotic for demanding for N30,000 as minimum wage considering the fact that the Nigerian worker has made more sacrifices to the nation than any governor .
According to a Press statement issued by his campaign organization through Mr. Dotun Oyelade, Makinde said it will not be too much for the Nigerian workers to be asking to go home with N1000 per day adding that such a demand ” should not be treated with disdain but with the milk of human kindness”
Shockingly, Makinde said the federal government should not impose a national minimum wage of states since Nigeria is a federation.
Speaking further, he insisted that State governments ought to have been allowed to negotiate the new minimum wage for their workers as the condition of living varies from state to state.
When asked to assess the state’s ability to pay the new wage, the Makinde reacted, “It has been signed into law. I personally believe that individual states should have been allowed to negotiate this because conditions of living in Lagos are obviously not the same as living in Ibadan.
“And I will definitely say without fear or favour that it’s part of the reasons why we are thinking of restructuring. That’s a federal system of government.
“We have a federation but the state governments I believe, are no subordinate to the federal government. They are coordinate governments.
“Then, when the federal government makes a law that says ‘well, we are going to pay 30,000 as minimum wage,’ what’s the condition in my state? Can we support it? I don’t think.
“We are going to engage the Nigeria Labour Congress in my state and we see how we go from there”, he continued.
