Governors across the 36 states of the federation are meeting tomorrow to take a decision on the amount to approve as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
Despite several meetings by the committee set up and made up of key stakeholders, there has not been any consensus over the new minimum wage.
Although the labour unions that have been part of the committee said it was decided that N30,000 should be paid, representatives of the government have claimed that the agreement was N24,000.
Claiming that the government was not saying the truth, labour unions have threatened to commence an indefinite strike on November 6 if the N30,000 is not paid.
But speaking to State House correspondents in Abuja shortly after an Economic Management Team meeting on Monday at the Presidential Villa, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State said governors would meet on Tuesday over the matter and take a position.
Yari is the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF.
He explained that the governors had never been unwilling to pay the amount stated.
The problem he said, however, was whether or not the states had the ability to pay.
His words: “Tomorrow, we are going to discuss with governors and say: look at what labour is sending.
“Look at the bill that was directed by the minister of labour and employment to be sent to the NGF’s secretariat so that we can digest the content of the bill; discuss it and come up with our position as governors because we are critical partners on this.’’
Speaking on whether or not the states would be able to pay, he said, “we are willing to pay the amount but the issue is the capacity– the muscle to pay.
“We discussed that government has some numbers and eventually the committee has given some proposals but the governors have not come out with any amount.”
