The governor of Ogun Ibikunle Amosun, says only eight states can afford to pay the revised minimum wage.
Amosun, who spoke at a town hall meeting that held on Thursday at the June 12 Cultural Centre in Abeokuta, said governors are struggling to pay salaries with the current N18,000 minimum wage.
His words: “The situation now is like an old woman with load walking gently, if she now adds more loads, she won’t walk at all. With N18,000 minimum wage, as we speak in this country, only seven or eight governors are able to pay full salaries,” he said.
“We are not magicians or miracle workers that will turn things around, we only make to do with what we have, nobody has the money.”
CKN News reports that the statement of the governor is coming at a time the organised labour had said it would embark on a nationwide strike if the federal government does not implement N30,000 as the new minimum wage.
The N30,000 is lower than their initial N50,000 demand.
Nigeria’s minister of labour Chris Ngige and the tripartite committee on minimum wage have said the federal government can afford N24,000.
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