Each state should have its minimum wage – Oyo Gov-elect

…Says Oyo can’t pay N30,000

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

Governor-elect of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, has said that state governments in Nigeria ought to have been allowed to negotiate new minimum wage for their workers, arguing that condition of living varies from state to state.

Makinde said this on Tuesday night while speaking to State House correspondents after attending the induction programme for newly elected and returning governors, organised by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said that he intends to negotiate with the state branch of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) because Oyo cannot pay the new national minimum wage of N30, 000 just signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Makinde said that the Federal Government should not impose a national minimum wage of states since Nigeria is a federation.

According to him, it is for the same reason that the call for the restructuring of the country had become strident.

Asked on Oyo State’s ability to pay the new minimum wage, the governor-elect said: “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 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 N30,000 as minimum wage,’ what’s the condition in my state? Can we support it? I don’t think so.”

The governor-elect disclosed that his administration will engage the Nigeria Labour Congress in the state and see how both parties would go from there.