The leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday disclosed how much each state initially proposed as minimum wage while insisting that it would not return to the negotiating table with the employers of labour, since the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage has concluded its assignment.
Ayuba Wabba, NLC President who reacted to the N22,5000 announced by Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) at a press briefing held in Abuja, argued that the N30,000 new minimum wage is irreversible as over 50 percent of the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage signed the agreement at the end of the negotiation which ended on the 5th October, 2018.
” More than 50 percent of our members have signed the signature page. What were they signing if there was no agreement?”
The NLC President alleged that the letter purportedly credited to Muheeba Dankaka, President, Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) that the Chamber proposed N22,000 was falsified by those trying to truncate the exercise.
Wabba who described the Nigeria Governors’ Forum as alien to the 1999 Constitution (as amended), argued that all the parties involved in the negotiation, including six representatives of the 36 State Governors and Organised Private Sector (OPS) after robust engagement unanimously agreed to the N30,000.
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According to the document seen by BusinessDay, Kano which has the biggest workforce and pays monthly wage of N9.2 billion offered to pay N30,600; Abia proposed N42,000; Jigawa proposed N32,000; Plateau proposed three figures (N25,000, N30,000 and N57,000, Nasarawa, proposed N24,750, N31,348.30 while Borno proposed N27,000).
Also, Gombe proposed N28,000; Bauchi proposed N25,200; Adamawa proposed N23,000; Taraba proposed N20,000; Ondo proposed N22,000 while Imo Ekiti, Akwa-Ibom, Kogi, Katsina and Oyo states did not specify any amount in the memoranda submitted.
The report further stated that Lagos offered that it will be bound by State Governors Forum, while Enugu offered to implement anything agreed at the Tripartite Committee.
According to Wabba, the organized labour in a letter sent to President Muhammadu Buhari proffered a solution to the lingering crisis trailing the N30,000 agreed as the new minimum wage.
He disclosed that Ama Pepple, chairman of the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage has not debunked the N30,000 which the tripartite committee agreed to.
“We have said severally that Ama Pepple is a woman of honour. A woman that has been the head of Service of the Federation, she was also at one time Minister of the Federal Republic. Those are the qualifications that gave her the pedigree to be appointed as chairperson of the Tripartite Committee.”
“The demand of organized labour is not N30,000. Our demand is N66, 500. N30, 000 is the compromise figure arrived at the end of negotiations by the tripartite partners – Government, Employers and Organized Labour. The new minimum wage was a product of intense negotiations that lasted for almost one year.”
Meanwhile it appears that core members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) have towed different positions on the controversy trailing the national minimum wage.
This comes as organised labour intensifies mobilisation ahead of November 6 nationwide strike that may further shake Nigeria’s fragile economy if allowed to commence.
Amid rising tampers, Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has carpeted the Nigeria Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) over the latter’s position on what the 30-man tripartite national minimum wage committee agreed on during its concluding sittings in Abuja on September 4 and 5, 2018.
Olusegun Oshionowo, the director general of NECA, who took on Muheeba Dankaka, the president of Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) in a statement on Wednesday, expressed NECA’s utter disappointment in the earlier statement by NACCIMA’s representative on the outcome of the works of the tripartite committee on the national minimum wage.
Dankaka had in a letter to Ama Pepple, chairperson of the tripartite committee on the new national minimum wage, dissociated NACCIMA from the position of the OPS.
But Oshinowo said: “Muheeba Dankaka was indeed absent from the sitting of the tripartite committee on the 4th and 5th September, 2018 when conclusions were reached. How then could she have been part of the discussions that led to the agreement?
The NECA DG further said: “The OPS representatives had consulted among themselves and were in touch with their primary constituencies through the process of negotiation which culminated in the agreement of N30, 000 as the National Minimum Wage (NMW)”
Oshinowo added that “Dankaka’s letter to the committee chairperson smirks, not only of mischief, but of utter ignorance on many fundamental issues and processes of the NMW fixing mechanism”.
He noted that: “at no time did NACCIMA propose a contrary figure to that of the entire OPS which includes NECA, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), all through the works of the committee.”
Oshinowo regretted that NACCIMA, through its representative, Dankaka, had unwittingly allowed herself to undermine the solidarity of the OPS at a time like this when integrity, candour and credibility would go a long way in resolving the burning issue of the national minimum wage conundrum.
He said “NECA traditionally has been the leader of the OPS on advocacy issues relating to labour and social issues, a role which it has creditably discharged in the over 60 years of its existence.
“The other arms of the OPS (NECA, MAN and NASME) are on the same page and undivided on this matter. The NMW committee has indeed concluded its works on September 5, 2018 on the note that it would only reconvene on a date to be given by the Presidency to submit its report to President Muhammadu Buhari. The committee at plenary had concluded on the note of recommending N30, 000 as the NMW, while noting the Federal Government’s position of N24,000.”
JOSHUA BASSEY & KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
