Workers all over the world have every right to agitate for improved welfare. These rights are fully captured in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) charter, which grants the right of workers to bargain for better working conditions and welfare.
Also, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), as well as Nigeria Labour Act (2004), all recognise these rights.
In Nasarawa state, the Governor Abdullahi Sule administration has continuously recognised the right of workers to agitate for better welfare.
There is ongoing agitation by workers across the country, Nasarawa state inclusive, regarding the implementation of the National Minimum Wage Act 2024, which pegged the new national minimum wage at N70,000.
Consequently, it has become necessary to refresh the minds of workers in Nasarawa state, as well as the general public, on the various interventions by the Sule administration to improve the welfare of the state’s workers.
This pertinent following concerted efforts to misinform the public, especially in the wake of the strike by state’s workers recently for the implementation of the new minimum wage.
First and foremost, Governor Sule was elected into office from a background of the organised private sector where he rose to the enviable position of the Group Managing Director of the Dangote Sugar company. He came into office, therefore, with the knowledge and experience to handle issues relating to the workers’ welfare.
Therefore, for Governor Sule, workers’ welfare is the top priority, given their critical role towards actualising the development agenda of the state government. When he came onboard in May 2019, the governor met a situation where civil servants both were paid in percentages. He swiftly ensured that workers received their full monthly wages.
Governor Sule also implemented the N30,000 national minimum wage. He inherited a salary arrears of N726,000 million, which was paid to civil servants in three installments starting from January 2021 to March 2021. This was in fulfillment of the governor’s promise to labour to enhance workers’ welfare. Workers were also promoted, with Nasarawa state now among the few states in the country that are up to date in the promotions of workers.
Over 8,000 workers were employed, 1,000 casual workers got permanent employment status, while residential quarters were given to civil servants on owner-occupier basis, with another 300 housing units in Luvu (Masaka) ready to be allocated to workers through mortgage financing.
He has also cleared backlog of outstanding gratuities for retired workers in the state from 1996 to 2011, ensuring that retirees receive full payment. Governor Sule cleared the 26 years backlog of gratuities.
Obviously, some civil servants in Nasarawa state are quick to forget all these well intentioned interventions and much more, particularly now that their focus is on the implementation of the 70,000 national minimum wage.
While it is their right to agitate for the implementation of this new wage, they should also endeavour to appreciate that Governor Sule earned the name the labour union gave him as the ‘Most Labour Friendly Governor’. They should not to throw the baby with the bathe water as they jostled for the new wage.
Already, Governor Sule has approved N70,500 minimum wage in the state and has demonstrated his willingness to implement a consequential adjustment for other category of workers. Leaders of organised labour in Nasarawa state should therefore have a rethink and consider all the laudable initiatives the present government executed purposely to enhance the welfare of workers in the state.
Since the commencement of the debate on the new national minimum wage, Governor Sule has been forthright in dealing with members of the organised labour, always carrying them alone in all the meetings where the new wage would be discussed.
At one of such meetings, where the Governor made known his intention to implement the new minimum wage, it was the organised labour in the state that intervened and urged him not to implement the new minimum wage. They instead asked him to implement their promotions, which he did.
It is therefore unfair to Governor Sule for any worker to turn around and accuse him of failing to implement the new minimum wage. The new minimum wage is a law, and the governor has always been on the side of the law.
According to Nasarawa State Deputy Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Akabe, who doubles as the Chairman of the National Minimum Wage Implementation Committee, Governor Sule has already directed the finance commissioner and the accountant general to facilitate the payment of the new wage this December.
It is also worthy of note that the minimum wage is the lowest amount of money that an employer is legally required to pay an employee for their work. It is a wage floor, below which employers are not allowed to pay their employees. It therefore means that for those who already receive more than the minimum wage as salary such would only benefit in percentages.
Indeed, workers in Nasarawa state should learn to appreciate Governor Sule for all that his administration is doing and would do to better the lives of not only civil servants but the entire population of the state.
