Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has said that it would be a self deceit to fashion a uniform national minimum wage for the Nigerian workers.
The Governor, who spoke today, March 7, at the South West zonal public hearing on the new national minimum wage held in Lagos, said: “while it would be desirable to see that a uniform minimum wage is agreed on a national basis, it would amount to self deceit to assume that states have equal ability to pay.”
According to him, individual states sould be allowed to negotiate with their workers and agree to a realistic and sustainable minimum wage in line with the available resources.
Governor Adeleke, who represents the South West at the National Tripartite Minimum wage committee, said that there is a consensus on the need to increase the minimum wage but stressed the need to review the revenue sharing formula and amendment of legislative list necessary to boost the capacity of the states to pay the new minimum wage.
“In all our meetings and various deliberations, one thing that the committee has been able to establish is that the workers in Nigeria are due for an improved welfare package. There is a consensus for an upward review of the National Minimum Wage because the existing one has become unrealistic.
“It has to be reiterated that the majority of the governments at the Sub−Nationals can hardly sustain an improved wages and salaries for their workers without a significant adjustment in some of the narratives in the national economy.
“In tandem with the public outcry for the review of the sharing formula for the federation account, the time has come for the federal government to revisit the matter. There is an urgent need for the review of existing sharing formulas in favor of states and local governments.
“I call on the National Assembly through the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to urgently take decisive action to look at the ratio objectively and realistically.
“Additionally, the nation must remove solid minerals from the exclusive legislative list.
“Every state in Nigeria has been blessed with one form of natural resources or the other. “There is a strong appeal to move solid minerals from exclusive to concurrent legislative list.”
The Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun was the Chairman of the zonal public hearing.
