New minimum wage implementation: Mixed feelings in states

…As civil servants rate state governors, make new demands

 

By Olakunle Olafioye (Lagos), Scholastica Hir (Makurdi), Femi Folaranmi (Yenagoa), Emmanuel Adeyemi (Lokoja), George Onyejiuwa (Owerri), Uchenna Inya (Abakaliki), Olanrewaju Lawal (Birnin Kebbi)

At a time when some states that promptly receive statutory allocations from the Federation Account are still struggling to comply with the National Minimum Wage Act , which prescribed N70,000 to be paid to workers, Ebonyi State Governor Francis Nwifuru has vowed that people who retire from the state’s civil service would receive their entitlements within one hour after retirement. 

In this regard, the administration is fast working out the mechanism to facilitate the payments. 

In this report, Sunday Sun correspondents present the situation in the various states, bringing out their compliance level, deficiencies and how the workers are feeling.

 

• President Tinubu.     • NLC President, Ajaero

LAGOS

Lagos State holds a joint enviable record of being the state with the highest minimum wage in the federation with Rivers State. 

The state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu had announced in October, 2024 that the state would raise the minimum wage payable to workers in the state to N85,000, even as the governor expressed the desire to further raise the wage benchmark to N100, 000 during this year’s Workers Day celebration.

Although the state may not have raised the minimum wage as the state governor had expressed, civil servants in the state seem to take succour in the promptness and regularity of their monthly take home while still hoping that the state government would live up to its promise of further raising the bar.

There is, however, indication that not all employees of the state currently benefit from the N85,000 minimum wage paid by the state. 

The chairperson of the Lagos State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Funmilayo Sessi, during this year’s Workers’ Day celebration, had called on the state government to ensure that employees in state agencies and parastatals are included in the wage policy to further alleviate their financial burden.

The governor acknowledged the concerns raised by the Labour union and assured that he would look into the union’s demands and reiterated the state’s readiness to improve the welfare of public servants and to continue strengthening the state workforce.

 

EBONYI

In Ebonyi State, Governor Francis Nwifuru has remained committed to regular payment of the N70,000 national minimum wage which President Bola Tinubu signed into law last year. Interestingly, workers in the state have been paid up to April, 2025. The April salaries were paid before 30th of the month.

Governor Nwifuru who disclosed this while addressing the workers during this year’s May Day celebration noted that the state is not indebted to the workers. 

He also announced that he had cleared the backlog of pensions and gratuities of retired civil servants in the state from 1996 till date, adding that  his administration was putting in place a mechanism that would ensure that  retired civil servants get paid their entitlements one hour after retirement.

His words: “As you all know, we have already taken concrete steps to improve prompt salary payments, expand opportunities for capacity development and provide places conducive for work, and reviewed outdated administrative structures.

 

“These efforts are not just promises; they are responsibilities that we are actively executing. Currently, we do not owe pensions and gratuities to retirees.

“We are putting in place a system that clears your gratuity less than one hour after exiting our service as a retiree. This, you can agree with, will reduce the risks of running around to process your retirement and its bottlenecks. I am glad to inform you we have reached advanced stage in this regard.”

Chairman of NLC in the state, Comrade Oguguo Egwu said Nwifuru has been so good to workers in the state.

“This is a man who expressed the need for a robust engagement during periods of Labour disputes, thereby allowing the working class to have a voice in the civic space; a man who has appointed unionists and technocrats into his cabinet; a man who feels the pains and anxieties of Ebonyi workers;

“They said he is unshakable but indeed, his soft heart yearns to touch humanity and that’s why we describe him as the most humanistic governor of our time. He has done so much that we must question: what is he yet to do for us? Is it the payment of gratuity to abandoned retirees spanning the period of almost 18 years; is it the implementation of the new national minimum wage?

“Is it the provision of the toll-free buses to convey workers to work? Is it the construction of housing units for public and civil servants? Is it the foreign and local postgraduate scholarships for Ebonyians? Is it the Christmas bonuses that create the loudest bang of credit alerts for workers? Where do we stop?”

He, however, urged the state government to provide more CNG buses for workers, more subsidized civil servants housing estates, increasing the pension of retirees as is obtainable in other parts of the country, equipping government offices in Centenary City, reinstatement of the bulk release of leave allowances in line with the realities of the new National Minimum wage, 2024.

 

BENUE

Workers in Benue State are among lucky civil servants, who are paid higher than the N70,000 national minimum wage passed into law under the President Tinubu administration. 

Governor Hyacinth Alia, in collaboration with Benue State legislature agreed that worker would be paid N75,000, which is N5000 higher than the national minimum. The good news is that the state governor has been faithful in paying the minimum wage to the workers.  

Rev Father Alia characterized the payment as his own way of elevating the living standards of civil servants, and a reflection of his commitment to enhancing worker motivation and productivity.

However, Chairman of the Benue State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Terungwa Igbe, said that workers were still being owed arrears of salary by the government.   

In a telephone chat, Igbe told Sunday Sun that the state government had not yet paid local government workers and teachers nine months arrears, while state government workers still had arrears of one or two months to be paid by the government.

However, during the recent celebration of Workers’ Day in Makurdi, Governor Alia, while speaking on his efforts to better the lots of workers in the state, noted that the administration had made part payment of salary arrears of five months to workers, including political appointees from previous administrations.

He promised that the government would make regular payments of arrears moving forward, saying the next payment would hit their accounts before the end of May.

 

BAYELSA

After the initial hiccups surrounding the payment of the ₦80,000 approved as minimum wage by Governor Douye Diri, the state government and workers are now on the same page. 

Grumbling and subtle protests greeted the payment of the ₦80,000 minimum wage following discrepancies in the calculation by the government team. 

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress had complained that the payment fell short of the Federal Government-approved minimum wage.

Diri had, therefore, directed his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, to oversee the negotiations between the government team and union representatives. While the negotiations were ongoing, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Niger Delta University branch, the state-owned university had embarked on strike to demand for 25%/ 35% to align the state minimum wage with that of the Federal Government. After months of ASUU strike and a series of negotiations, the state government agreed. It was the same agreement and formula that it decided to implement for all workers in the state.

 On the eve of the 2025 Workers Day, the state government announced a 25/35 per cent salary rise to reflect the ₦80,000 minimum wage. 

The state government also decided to back-date the commencement of the payment to November 2024, in tandem with the agreement it reached with NDU ASUU.

Breaking it down, Ewhrudjakpo disclosed that the payment stratified according to grade levels would commence from the end of May. According to him, the six-month arrears would be spread across one year in batches on a ministry-by-ministry basis.

An analysis of the payment indicated that those on grade 17 and Permanent Secretaries are placed on 35%, while 25% would be paid to all employees on grade level 16 and below.

Ewhrudjakpo said the decision was reached when the state government juxtaposed it against what the Federal Government has done.

Expectedly, the decision made the Labour unions happy and they appreciated the gesture of the state government.  

The Chairman of NLC in the state, Comrade Simon Barnabas, said the Diri government has shown its friendliness to the workers in the state.

In demonstration of appreciation to the Diri-led administration, the Labour unions publicly expressed their appreciation during the May Day celebration.

“It is visible to the blind and audible to the deaf that your administration has been kind to workers,’’ the unions declared in a joint address by the NLC and the TUC.   

 

KOGI

Kogi State government has since complied with the payment of the national minimum wage with a slight increase from N70,000 to N72,500. The state was one the first states in North Central region to do so.

Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo while approving the minimum wage also granted a one-year tax relief to civil servants in the state.

At the recent workers’ day celebration, he also gave additional one year tax relief to the state workforce.

However, some groups of civil servants have complained that the state civil service has no salary chart, stressing that the real amounts paid to workers are shrouded secrecy, manipulated and less than the real amount expected.

Local government workers and primary schools teachers are said to be worst hit as their monthly take home is short of reflection of the current N72,500 that the state government is claiming to be paying.

No labour leader was, however, willing to come out openly to speak about this when Sunday sun reporter contacted them They neither took calls made to them or reacted to SMS sent to them.

 

IMO

The Imo State Government is paying the national minimum wage of N70,000 to civil servants on grade levels 1 to 6. 

However, those on grade level 7 and above were supposed have a consequential adjustment to their salaries.

Meanwhile, some of the civil servants who spoke to Sunday Sun on condition of anonymity said that there was no real consequential adjustment done.

One of the civil servants, who works in the Imo State Government House confided in Sunday Sun: “There was supposed to be a consequential adjustment to our salaries, who were not included in new national minimum wage of N70,000. But as a Level-8 officer what was added to be salary is just N5,000 only. I was not paid any promotional arrears since last year when I was promoted. I have also not been paid leave allowance or any other thing for that matter. They just pay whatever they want whenever they decide to pay.”

Similarly, another staff of the Ministry of Transport lamented that Labour leaders in the state betrayed the civil servants. Ever since, I was promoted to my current level two years ago, I have not received promotional arrears. I still am receiving what I was being paid when I was Grade Level 10. Here you are promoted without the necessary adjustment in your salary and nothing is added. We are supposed to have an adjustment in our salaries as required, but it has not happened.”

However, Chairman Nigeria Labour Congress, Imo State Council, Comrade  Chigemezu Nwigwe, thanked the state governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma for being Labour-friendly.

“I express appreciation to Governor Uzodimma for his friendly disposition to workers and for the regular payment of salaries and pensions to verified workers and pensioners,” Nwigwe said.

He further commended him for giving Imo workers a sense of belonging through the provision of commuter buses to transport them to and fro work. 

Nwigwe thanked the governor for making the State Secretariat more conducive for work, and for the commencement of the payment of the long abandoned gratuities of pensioners. 

He appealed that the exercise should continue as there were pensioners yet to be paid.

 

KEBBI

From October 23, 2024 till date, workers in the Kebbi State Civil Service have been receiving the N75,000 minimum wage approved by Governor Nasir Idris, following the passage of the National Minimum Wage Bill and President Tinubu’s assented and signed it into law.  

Sunday Sun also gathered that the state does not owe pensions, gratuities or death benefits. This heartwarming development has made Kebbi one of the states that treat workers’ welfare as a priority.

Idris who signed the bill presented to him by the House of Assembly on the new minimum wage, also directed the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to ensure all the workers of local councils benefited from

Addressing the national leaders of NLC, led by its National President, Comrade Joe Ajearo, Dr Nasir Idris said his administration had no excuses not to pay since it had paid worker’s salaries, pensions and gratuities up to date.

He said: “Mr President, the Labour Union in Nigeria has done a lot for me. You have supported me and supported my party. Because if I don’t have a platform there is no way you can support me no matter how much you wanted to

“But I contested an election under APC, our great party and being one of your own, you led Nigeria’s workers to Kebbi State and by God grace, I won all my elections, won all the litigations with the support and prayers of Nigeria’s workers and Kebbi State masses.

“And Mr. President, you could recall that during my inauguration all of you were here and I promised that I would not fail you people. I will try to show leadership by example and at the same time, promised that I will judiciously use Kebbi State resources with the fear of God.

“Mr. President, for the record, like I promised you that I will not fail you and Kebbi State workers, the leadership of the two arms of NLC are here and others, they can testify that my administration like I always say, I don’t owe salaries, pensions, gratuities and death benefits.

“Mr. President, to crown it all, we have paid the annual leave allowances of 2023 and 2024. You have witnessed the signing of the new minimum wage into law today and I have directed the Commissioner for Finance, Accountant General of the state,Commissioner for Local Government that the salaries of October of Kebbi State workers should start enjoying new minimum wage.

“And I have given you 72 hours to ensure that every workers enjoying this new minimum wage. If we are up to dates in payments of salaries,pensions, death benefits and other allowances, I don’t see the reason why the implementation of new minimum wage should be delayed. Every worker should get the new minimum wage.” he said.

He added when the Tripartite Committee which he set up presented N72,000, N73,000 and N75,000 to him, he decided to pick N75,000 as the new minimum wage.

In his remark, NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero who was in the state with other executives of the Congress to hold their meeting, noted that Governor Idris had not disappointed the Labour Family, and stressed that the labour movement remained proud of him.

Despite not being privileged to receive the statutory 13 percent allocation from the Federation Account set aside for oil-producing states, Ajaero noted that Kebbi had been faithfully and regularly paying the minimum wage while some other states that receive part of the 13 percent derivation fund were finding it difficult to implement the new minimum wage.

The Accountant General of the state, Alhaji Bello Nahaliku, promised that the state government would sustain the payment throughout the administration of Governor Nasir Idris.