Minimum wage: Buhari, govs may clash as FG sets up advisory panel

Indications emerged in Abuja on Wednesday that President Muhammadu Buhari might clash with governors if he presented a bill to the National Assembly, proposing N30,000 as the national minimum wage without considering the states’ ability to pay, The PUNCH has learnt.

Buhari had while inaugurating a Technical Advisory Committee on National Minimum Wage in Abuja on Wednesday said there would be negotiations with workers already earning above N30,000 to help the Federal Government and the states to implement a new wage increase smoothly.

A new proposal of N30,000 is now before the President, which will be forwarded to the National Assembly on January 23 as a bill.

But the governors said they had already told the President the financial crisis the proposed N30,000 minimum wage would bring to their states if approved.

A governor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The PUNCH correspondent that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, as a body, had sent to the President financial analysis of how the increment would affect 30 states.

The PUNCH, January 10, 2019

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