By Reporters
Abuja, June 23, 2024(NAN) “Laws without enforced consequences are merely suggestions” Ron Brackin, an Investigative journalist and author of international bestseller, “Son of Hamas’’, once said.
The quote by Brackin translates to the fact, any law made with no effective mechanism to ensure its compliance is like a toothless bulldog that can bark, but cannot bite.
Organised labour and Nigerian workers are anxiously awaiting President Bola Tinubu’s executive bill on a new minimum wage to the National Assembly amidst the refusal of some state governors to implement the N30,000 minimum wage signed into law in 2019.
It is pertinent to note that workers, in no fewer than 15 states across the country and 70 per cent private organisations are yet to implement the old wage of N30,000.
The states yet to implement the minimum wage, in defiant of the 2019 Act, are, Abia, Bayelsa, Delta, Enugu, Nasarawa, Adamawa, Gombe, Niger, Borno, Sokoto, Anambra, Imo, Benue, Taraba and Zamfara.
While the N30,000 minimum wage law was not implemented, a report by BudgiT, a Civil Society Organisation, revealed that the 36 states of the federation grew their revenue by 28.95 per cent from N5.12 trillion in 2021 to N6.6 trillion in 2022.
“Put together, the Internally Generated Revenue of the 36 states appreciated by 12.98 per cent from N1.61 trillion in 2021 to N1.82 trillion in 2022 denoting a strengthened domestic revenue mobilisation capability,” BudgiT’ report says.
Similarly, since the inception of President Tinubu’s administration and the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, revenue accruing to the states have witnessed tremendous growth.
Specifically, statutory allocations from the Federal Account Allocation Committee to the 36 states and 774 local government areas from July 2023 to Dec. 2023, increased to N3.34 trillion post-fuel subsidy era.
In 2024, the statutory allocations to states, from the budget approval for the year, is projected to increase by 65 per cent.
With the unprecedented huge increase in revenues accruing to states and local government councils, stakeholders have said that the excuse of paucity of fund for non-payment of minimum wage, by the recalcitrant states was not tenable.
They contended that the argument by governors that most of the states were heavily indebted, due to loans taken by their predecessors, was also not acceptable.
According to the stakeholders, with the untold hardship brought about by fuel subsidy removal and floating of the Naira, the state governors should see the justifications for implementing the minimum wage.
They challenged the state governors to justify the increased allocations by ending the hardship and widespread pains of Nigerians
In a recent interview, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, said that both the federal and state governments have the ability to pay the minimum wage provided looted funds are recovered.
“The state governments that are saying they have no money to pay, the money is there.
“All they need, including the Federal Government, is to muster the political will to collect and recover money either looted or withheld from the Federation Account,” he said.
Corroborating Falana, an academia, Dr Olabode Ojoniyi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the governments and even, the private sector can pay any minimum wage, if corruption is tackled and wastages minimised
Ojoniyi, the Director, Centre for Wole Soyinka Studies, University of Abuja, said governors should put in place cost-cutting measures to enable them pay new minimum wage to their workers.
According to him, spending on frivolities and the bogus and unnecessary advisers, special advisers, senior special advisers and personal assistants must be cut down.
Ojoniyi stressed that the governments cannot waste their resources on frivolities and turn around to claim they do not have money to implement what concerns the ordinary man on the street.
He also challenged the governors to think outside the box, by identifying and investing of ventures that will boost the internally generated revenues of their states.
“There should be deliberate policies to revolutionise agriculture and related ventures where states have comparative advantages.
“In some of the states where there are natural resources deposit, mining should be regulated in such a way that revenue should accrue to the states’ coffer,” he said
Ojoniyi also stressed the need for a conscious workforce that are ready to protect their rights, at all cost.
“The problem is that we don’t have a conscious workforce and citizens that can take decisive but legitimate actions to compel the states to pay the minimum wage that will benefit the citizens.
“Even, when they are fully aware that billions of Naira is being stolen by government officials on daily basis, they are too docile to take actions that will make the states to pay their legitimate wages.
“The only solution is for the workforce and the citizens to rise and fight for their rights. Until they do so, politicians will continue to take them for granted,’ he said.
A civil servant, Mrs Sarah Uwem said, if the governors priotise the interest of workers in their states, paying a minimum of, at least N100,000, should not be a challenge.
According to her, no governor has accounted for the security votes running into billions of naira which they receive monthly.
She noted that, if governors could spend so much on their personal and immediate family members’ security, it is insensitive for them to refuse to pay a wage that can only put food on the tables of workers.
Uwem noted that in other climes, there is no fixed wage. Rather, worker’s wage is attached to the purchasing power.
She said it is done in a way that, If the inflation has gone up, worker’s wage is adjusted automatically to sustain purchasing power.
Uwem, however, rejected the call in certain quarter, that the federal government should withhold the monthly allocations of states that refused to pay minimum wage.
“Yes, I learnt of the call for the seizure of their allocations. That might aggravate the hardship the people are already facing.
“Seizing allocations to the state is not a wise idea, let the government take other steps to stop it or find ways to punish those governors,” she suggested.
Speaking on other options available to compel states to pay the statutory minimum wage, a senior lawyer, Mr Oba Maduabuchi, SAN, said
the organised labour can approach the court for redress.
Maduabuchi said minimum wage is guaranteed by constitutional provision and it is not optional for any state when a figure is legislated upon by the national Assembly.
“You will see that, anytime the labour wants to go on strike, the Federal Government will run to Industrial Court to get a restraining order.
“When workers disobeyed such injunction, we have seen instances where they were sanctioned with, no work, no pay.
“It is the same thing, when a state government fails to pay, the labour unions can go to court and also get judgment and execute the order of the court when it is given,” he said.
Citing Section 6 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), Maduabuchi said the judiciary is set up to determine the rights and liabilities of all persons.
“Government also include persons, and the court hears those cases whether it is against individuals, corporate body, government or National Assembly. You can take them to court.”
He said the minimum wage law is in No. 34 of the Exclusive Legislative List, which only the Federal Government can legislate on it.
The lawyer said the issue of immunity cannot stop the governors from being sued for refusal to comply with the law.
“It is not that you cannot sue a governor, but you cannot bring a personal suit against a governor.
“You can file a legal action against a governor of a state; but not against him in person,” he explained.
Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Abdul Ibrahim, said it was high time the organised labour rose up to the occasion, if any governor decided not to implement the minimum wage.
Ibrahim said some of the governors get away with their non-compliance with the wage law because they are not being held accountable for wrongdoings
He said one of the ways to ensure its implementation is to vote out any governor who fails to comply with the payment, during election year.
“This is because most citizens are not alive to their responsibilities because if you hold government accountable and our votes actually count, then you will remove any governor that is not paying and vote in who is ready to come and pay.
“But between you and I, you also know that most of the time, during elections, they buy votes and that is why this has been difficult.
“So, these are some of the challenges of the kind of democracy we are practising in this country, where vote buying is the order of the day.
“They manipulate documents and figures and at the end of the day, the court will say, well, it is for you to proof,” he said.
No doubt, the enforcement of minimum wage laws in Nigeria is at best, weak.
Therefore, to rescue the nation’s minimum wage law from being ineffectual, the national assembly must legislate a realistic wage and tighten the noose of the Act from being flouted without consequences.(NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
Reporters/ROT
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Edited by Rotimi Ijikanmi
