Immediate past National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomole, has asked the National Assembly to quell the plan to remove the minimum wage from exclusive legislative list to concurrent list.
In an interview with Vanguard on Thursday, Oshiomhole said it is an insult for the APC-dominated assembly to entertain a bill seeking to remove the minimum wage from exclusive legislative list.
The former President of Nigeria Labour Congress also berated state governors that have refused to implement the N30,000 new National Minimum Wage.
According to Oshiomhole, states that cannot implement the minimum wage should not exist.
He said: “I want Nigerian workers to organise, across all the primordial sentiments and become a force, capable not only of thinking or talking, but also assertive and prevent bad governance. We can’t accept any Nigerian governor today refusing to implement the minimum wage. He should not go to bed.
“President Buhari said, and I don’t think you can have more support than that, to governors: “How do you sleep Mr Governors, when you have not paid your workers salaries for one month, two months or six months?”
If I have a Commander-in-Chief saying that, I don’t need any other licence to close down any of those states that refuse to perform. If your state is not capable or competent to meet the most basic social protection, then why should you exist?
“Meanwhile, we can see the governors with all the social protection, with all the luxuries, how come the workers cannot have it? I was a governor, so, I am not talking out of envy. When I was governor, I increased the minimum wage to N25, 000 when some governors said N18, 000 was not possible.
“So, I know from experience every country created by God has enough to meet the basic needs of everyone, but no country has enough to meet the greed of a few. It must be clear to NLC that the sermon may not change it.
“We have to organise, we would not agonise. We have to fight, we would not wallow in self-pity, and we have to target and close down states that refuse to pay N30,000 minimum wage.
“If a right-wing National Party of Nigeria, NPN, the government could approve minimum wage and military dictator implemented it, how can All Progressives Congress, APC-dominated National Assembly even tolerate the motion to remove minimum wage from exclusive legislative list to concurrent legislative list?
“For me, it is an insult and very embarrassing that an APC- dominated House of Representatives presided over by APC progressive Speaker, allowed that motion.
“Any governor who fails to implement the N30, 000 minimum wage, which is the law, should not just be challenged by words of mouth, he should be engaged.
“These governors could decide to wear ear masks, but you can shut them down because workers have the power. That is why Organised Labour should not lament, not regret, not to appeal to emotion, but to face anybody who faces us as workers.
“Any governor who refuses to pay N30, 000 should not sleep. He should not, not for one month, not for two months. The same goes for any employers in the private sector too.”