Ngige Blasts Govs For Playing Politics With Minimum Wage

Sena­tor Chris Ngige, the Minister for Labour and Employment has advised to get something doing, stating that said governors are only playing politics with the fact that they can not continue to pay N18,000 minimum wage.

Chris Ngige

Speaking at a meeting with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja, the minister apportioned blames on the Labour congress as well as governors.

He said: “When the NLC joined the governors in talking about minimum wage, with the governors saying we cannot pay N18,000 minimum wage and NLC says it is time for us to ask for increase, we now know that these talks are talks that are heating up the sys­tem.

“The NLC knows bet­ter that the governors are playing politics. This is one matter that you cannot play politics with because it is a matter of rule of law.

“The law in place now is the Minimum Wage Act enacted by the National Assembly and the Nation­al Assembly derived their powers from the Exclusive List of the constitution which gives them power to make laws on labour-related matters, including minimum wage.

“So, anybody who wants to talk about mini­mum wage should go to the National Assembly or ask the president to send an Executive Bill which can be discussed and it will be a tripartite discussion, with the convening of a public hearing.

“Please, let a sleep­ing dog lie, because this country is going through a very difficult time now and require your prayers and support. Nobody can reduce wages now. If anything, if you have more money, you pay higher.”  

However, the federal government has finally cleared the air in regard of the new controversy trailing the call for the reduction of national minimum wage championed by some state governors.