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From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has condemned the call for decentralisation of minimum wage by the immediate past Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, advocating that states should be allowed to have separate negotiation with labour on new minimum wage.
The student body in a statement yesterday, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, by the National Clerk of the Senate of NANS, Abdul-Yekinn Odunayo, described such a call as anti-workers.
The Federal Government and labour unions have been locked in negotiations over a new minimum wage. While the labour insists on N250,000, the government is offering N62,000.
Fayemi, in an interview recently, advocated for a decentralised minimum wage negotiation, arguing that states should determine what they can pay considering their peculiarities.
But, NANS while reacting to Fayemi’s statement, called on the Federal Government to ignore the former governor, and rather, compel the state governors to implement the new minimum wage if signed into law.
Odunayo described Fayemi’s statement as uncalled for, and capable of setting the governors against the Federal Government.
“We want to urge the Federal Government to ignore former Governor Fayemi and his call for a decentralised minimum wage negotiation with the labour.
“In fact, we want the Federal Government to compel state governors to pay the new minimum wage if signed into law and mete out serious sanctions against any state governor that defaults in the payment of the new minimum wage.
“It is dangerous and unproductive to allow state governors to determine what they can pay as minimum wage. This can spell doom for Nigeria and set the governors against the Federal government,” Odunayo said in the statement.
Meanwhile, NANS, under the leadership of Pedro Obi, has backed the labour unions for demanding a better pay as minimum wage.
He reiterated that “Nigerian students will not relent in giving every necessary support and encouragement to President Tinubu-led administration, towards restoring the lost glory of our dear country, and providing conducive conditions for Nigerians, that would encourage them to live and work safely in the country.”
Obi stressed that the federal and state governments must prioritise workers’ welfare and implement policies that would improve the living conditions of Nigerians.
