The minimum wage tussle between the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the government is one that has been on for some time now.
Last week, a five-day ultimatum was given to President Bola Tinubu to agree to its minimum wage demand.
However, Tinubu said he is committed to a ₦62,000 wage, while the TUC and the NLC said they weren’t fixated on their demand of ₦494,000.
Reacting to this, the NLC mentioned that ₦62,000 is unacceptable as the minimum wage, and this may lead to another industrial action if a favourable conclusion isn’t reached by both parties.
However, it is quite surprising that even in the midst of this dialogue, the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) has said that local councils cannot afford to pay the proposed ₦62,000 as the new minimum wage because of the lean allocation from the Federation Account.
The National President of ALGON, Mr. Aminu Muazu-Maifata, who addressed newsmen in Lafia, the Nasarawa state capital, on Monday, June 10, said all the 774 local government councils across the nation get an allocation of about 18 percent from the Federation Account monthly, and it is not enough to pay the N62,000 minimum wage.
Minimum Wage And Other Responsibilities
“Apart from payment of wages, we still have other responsibilities, such as the provision of affordable healthcare, education, security, traditional institutions, rural roads, and youth and women’s empowerment, among others, to contend with.”
In addition, Maifata noted that council chairmen had thrown their weight behind wage increments for civil servants, also begged for an increase in the monthly allocations of the 774 LGA’s in the country to enable councils to pay the proposed minimum wage.
Also, he called for an amendment of the constitution to make the tenure of office of LGA officials uniform across the country for smooth administration, pledging that the association would work with other stakeholders to ensure full implementation of the area council’s autonomy as enshrined in the country’s constitution.
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The Chairman of Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State said:
“The tenure of office of LGA officials should be made four years to enable them to deliver on their campaign promises to the electorate.
The tenure is three years in some states and two years in some other states, which is not good for the administration at the local councils.”
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