Governor Abdullahi Sule has restated the commitment of his administration to implement the new national minimum wage.
Governor Sule reaffirmed this commitment shortly after signing into law the 2024 supplementary budget at the Government House on Wednesday.
The Governor assured workers in the state that his administration would not play with their welfare, adding that what remains is for the committee set up to review modalities for the implementation of the minimum wage to officially presents its report.
He said it has become necessary to clear the air regarding the minimum wage because of claims on social media that his administration is not doing anything about the new wage.
“As you are all aware, Nasarawa State was the first to make the commitment that we are going to pay the minimum wage the moment it was agreed. But I think at one point, the officials of labour came in and insisted that instead of minimum wage they wanted us to handle their promotion.
“It’s not that we did not take care of promotion. We implemented promotions from 2011 to 2018. But they were more interested in us coming back to do the promotion for 2019 to 2023. Because of the pressure from them we accepted and paid. Right now, Nasarawa State is one of the few states, if any, that is up to date with promotion up to 2023. This was was we did,” he said.
Governor Sule said that notwithstanding, his administration decided to work towards implementing the new minimum by setting up a committee under the chairmanship of the Deputy Governor, Dr Emmanuel Akabe, including members of the organized labour.
He explained that even though the committee has prepared their report, They have prepared its report, the Deputy Governor is not around to present the report.
“To demonstrate our commitment, we said let us not wait for the Deputy Governor. We still went ahead and met to review the work of the committee. However, we still have to wait for the Deputy Governor to show him the respect to present the document to us. But we have reviewed the document. We are looking into it and we are committed even though we paid the promotions and it is our liberty to wait a little but we are still willing to immediately implement the new national minimum wage,” he stated.
He added that his administration is showing commitment to workers in the state, even accepting to pay hundred percent gratuities of retired workers from 1996 to 2011.
“If you also look at gratuity, these are also workers that have left. We came in and took the decision that all those who left from 1996 to 2011 now they have been paid hundred percent of their gratuity. And we are taking from there now to start looking from 2012, 2013. As more resources are coming in, we are paying everybody because we didn’t want a situation where we were making selections in paying. That is why we said we are paying everybody irrespective whether we know you or not. Whether you are in our party or different party. Whether you care about us or you don’t care about us. I think that is the way government should work and that is the way we are working,” he said.
The Govenor further assured that, unlike what obtains in other states, where public announcements were made but that committees were then set up to review modalities for the payment, his administration is working to make sure that the new wage is immediately implemented once it is announced.
“For Nasarawa State, the month that we agree to pay, that month will be paid. We don’t want to just announce and then set up a committee to start reviewing the numbers. We want to announce after we agreed on the template and then we just go ahead and pay away from the template.
“It is easier for me to sit down and announce we are paying a certain amount and then we set up a committee. The committee may take up to three months. For me it’s not respectful and it’s not the way to go,” he said.
The Governor therefore appealed to the labour unions and all those speculating on the social media to understand that his administration meant business and that it cannot play around with peoples welfare.
“Even those who have left the service, we are not playing with their welfare. We can not play around with those who are in the system,” he assured.