In a statement by its spokesperson, Abdulrazaque Bello- Barkindo, the forum said the insinuations by the Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) through an interview granted by its Secretary-General, Peter Eson, that governors are refusing to pay the N30,000 minimum wage as demanded by NLC “is not only mischievous but misleading and in bad faith.”
The forum said the report “is a needless attempt by the leadership of Labor to steer the public away from the promise by President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute another committee to review the minimum wage gridlock.”
“Governors have collectively made it abundantly clear that they would have been happy to pay workers the N30,000 but times are hard and because of financial constraints and other limitations, many states cannot afford it, for now.
“The NGF had offered workers a token increment to the sum of N22,500 from the currentN18,000 after the submission of the report of the tripartite committee set up by the president and headed by a retired Head of Service Ms. Amma Pepple on October 6,” the governors’ forum said.
He said the N22,500 was arrived at, after extensive deliberations among all 36 governors, outlining their financial capacities and liquidity, considering the economic situation of the country and the states’ other obligations to the majority of the people of their various domains.
The statement said the governors also emphasized that N22,500 is a “baseline threshold,” meaning that any governor who can pay more than N22,500 is, therefore, free to go ahead and do so.
“Let it be known that governors have met the president twice on this matter and presented their books to buttress their point,” the statement said.
The forum said this is not the time for the NLC to destroy the existing conviviality that is already building-up between workers and their governors, especially in those states of the federation where governors are stepping up to the plate with the right decisions.