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In a clime with no social security for workers, who face escalating costs in housing, food, education, and healthcare, the prospect of earning the new minimum wage has excited trade unions in the Niger Delta.
Meanwhile, in a bid to defray financial burden associated with the increment, some Niger Delta State governments have started diversifying their economies to enable them meet financial obligations in infrastructural development.
A cross section of workers pointed out that, though the new minimum wage might improve workers’ welfare at the low end of the ladder in other parts of the country, it would barely meet the needs of workers in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Delta States. Also for workers in Port Harcourt, Benin, Uyo and Warri, the new minimum wage does not certainly match the cost of living in these cities. While workers welcome the increment, there is general consensus that it will not actually translate to improvement in their standard of living.However, the state governments, which have expressed readiness to pay the new wage, said they would boost workers’ welfare and possibly promote social inclusiveness.
IN Rivers State, the government has appropriated N480bn for 2019 fiscal year. The budget captured the state’s infrastructural needs and made provision for the new minimum wage.A substantial part of the recurrent expenditure of N157, 122, 354, 563 proposed for 2019 is for payment of staff salaries. Excerpt from the budget revealed that personnel emolument alone would gulp N79, 585,058,808.60. This amount constitutes about 50 per cent of the state’s entire recurrent expenditure for this year. The increase in the figure is as a result of the need to provide for the anticipated increase in the minimum wage for civil servants.
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, said with this, the state is in a position to pay the minimum wage. He also disclosed that this year’s recurrent expenditure made provisions for staff promotion arrears and new recruitments into the state’s civil service.
Though Rivers is on a good financial stead to pay the new minimum wage, the Governor is, however, of the view that Nigerian workers will be better off, when states are allowed to fix separate minimum wages in line with their financial capacity. This, he said, is because states’ financial capacities vary.He said: “And for us, therefore, the single national minimum wage system is yet another lie that betrays the distortions in our federation and the structured dislocation of states in the power equation between Federal Government and the federating states.
“It is our view that the country and its workers would be better off, if states are allowed to fix and pay their own minimum wages indexed to the prevailing cost of living and ability to pay. When this happens, it is possible that some states may go beyond the minimum threshold to pay a living wage, which is what our workers truly need.”Wike, who recently said Rivers has emerged from the brink of economic disaster to an era of fiscal sustainability, promised not to introduce new taxes despite the wage increase.
According to him, rather depend on revenue from the federation account, the state would continue with her drive to generate more revenue from alternative internal sources to fund substantial parts of the budget.“While we may not introduce new taxes and levies in 2019, I have directed the state’s Internal Revenue Service to plug all existing tax loopholes, crack down on tax defaulters and ensure full implementation of our revenue laws, to shore up our IGR collections,” he said.
Had the state government not taken the initiative to compel civil servants to undergo mandatory biometric screening and capture, it would have been in a dire strait financially and unable to pay the new minimum wage.
In 2016, the government discovered that more than 1, 000 civil servants were receiving salaries in different ministries. Wike also discovered that over 50,000 civil servants, including ghost workers, were taking a large chunk of the state’s revenue.He said then: “There are cabals in the civil service making money. I have the political will and I will stop the trend, whereby government will be paying over N5bn as salaries and some people will be taking half of the money.”
Rivers State chairman of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Mrs. Beatrice Itubo, has lauded the state government’s commitment to respond positively to payment of the new minimum wage.She said: “Our thanks go to the government of Rivers State under the competent leadership of Governor Wike for showing preparedness to pay the new minimum wage, as soon as formalities are done with.”
Itubo told The Guardian that despite the fact that government and Labour agreed that the new minimum wage fell far short of what was estimated to be a living wage, the N30, 000 would help improve the lots of workers on the bottom rung of wage distribution.The Secretary of Rivers State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ike Wigodo, said the N30, 000 minimum wage is payable by all states, if they prioritise workers’ welfare and cut down on cost of running government.
He said: “It is only in Nigeria a federal legislator goes home with huge amount of between N22m and N33m per month and yet, the governors are saying they cannot pay a pittance of N30, 000 to workers. What a nauseating paradox.”
No Excuse For Cross River Not To Pay —TUC
ALSO in Cross River State, the government has expressed readiness to pay the N30, 000 new minimum wage.The state Governor, Ben Ayade, who gave this assurance recently at the May Day rally in Calabar through the Secretary to the State Government, Tina Banku Agbor, pledged to pay the new minimum wage, once the modalities have been worked out by the Federal Government.
On how to go about this, Ayade said the state was determined to break away from overdependence on federation account. Hence, it was embarking on mega agricultural programmes to produce cocoa, rice and poultry farms, as well as processing mills and others, which would help the state, pay its huge salary wage bills.
Already, the state government is encouraging farmers with incentives, especially from the Anchor Borrowers programme to invest more in cocoa, rice and poultry farms, so as to take advantage of the mills that are being put in place by the state government. Presently, the state boasts of a large number of cocoa and rice farms, located in the central and northern parts of the state.
Read Full Story [The Guardian]