The Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma on Friday expressed optimism that the minimum wage offer of N62,000 jointly proposed by the federal government and Organised Private Sector (OPS) will become law.
Organised Labour on Tuesday (June 4, 2024) called off their industrial action in what they described as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to a higher national minimum wage above the N60,000 earlier proposed.
However, THE WHISTLER reported that although OPS and the federal government proposed the sum of N62,000 a 3.33 per cent increase from the earlier N60,000 rejected.
The Organised labour again rejected the amount, insisting on N250,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerians.
But Uzodinma while answering questions shortly after the tripartite committee meeting for minimum wage in Abuja said, “We expect what happened in 2018, to repeat itself”.
Recall in 2018, the OPS and Organised Labour proposed N30,000 while the federal government under the administration of Former President Muhammadu Buhari proposed N24,000.
The two figures went to the president as a recommendation for his consideration for onward transmission to the National Assembly for it to become a law and the majority proposal of N30,000 was enacted.
In the same vein, Uzodinma said, “We were able to engage the critical stakeholders at the committee by the end of the day.
“Out of the three parties involved, the OPS, government and organised labour we met and two parties have agreed to go with N62,000, as of yesterday (Thursday) Labour insisted on N494,000 today they came down to N250,000.
“Among the three parties, two have come to be the majority. So, the majority will always have their way and the minority can have their say.
“Arising from what happened in 2018, when the government lost after offering N24,000 and OPS and Labour offered N30,000. When the recommendation got to the then-president, he approved and took the opposition party.
“In the same margin, we expect when this gets to the president he will also take the majority position”.
Weighing in on the minimum wage disparity, the Chairman of the Tripartite Committee on National New minimum wage, Alhaji Bukar Goni Aji said the two recommendations would be sent to the president to act on.
He said, “In the last four months, the issue of the new national minimum wage has been the topic discussed everywhere A lot of work has gone into it, the plenary meeting today is our 12th meeting”.
“And the recommendation today came as a deeper understanding and studies of all the economic indices. Caution has been displayed so that a figure that will further throw the country into confusion is not allowed.
“This is because the very moment a party goes into an agreement that it knows it cannot afford, then it is going to create another problem and the federal government and OPS have agreed to the figure of what they term what they can afford”.
The chairman noted that the committee was to recommend a minimum wage but was not bestowed the power to implement or approve a minimum wage.