A leader of the pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Ayo Opadokun has blamed the federal government for the lingering industrial crisis in the country over the implementation of the ₦18,000 minimum wage.
Mr Opadokun, who is a former secretary of Afenifere and the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) identified lack of true federalism as the major cause of the industrial crisis caused by the implementation of the minimum wage. He said the federal government did not make necessary provision for the implementation of the minimum wage.
“The problem with Nigerian geo-political setting is that consistently, we abuse the major concept of federalism. In federation, the central does not have the power to negotiate on behalf of the component units like in this case, hence, the current problem we are experiencing in some states over the payment of the new minimum wage,” the Afenifere leader, who spoke with journalists in Osogbo, Osun state capital yesterday said.
He challenged the federal government to increase the monthly allocation accrued to the states for them to be able to implement the minimum wage.
“If truly the federal government wants the states to implement the minimum wage totally, then something has to be done for the states in terms of finance for them to be able to implement the minimum wage totally. The federal government should do something urgently if it doesn’t want the collapse of this entity called Nigeria,” he said.
He also appealed to workers in the employment of Osun State government to reason with the state government over the minimum wage issue. Civil servants in Osun State have been on strike since Monday over the issue.
Let us dialogue
But Mr Opadokun urged labour leaders in the state to come to the dialogue table with state government, instead of demanding that the implementation of the ₦18,000 be done across the board once and for all.
“I am appealing to the labour leaders in Osun state not to shun dialogue,” he said. “Even in war, at the end of the day, you will sit at a round table to talk matters. The idea of saying we want to have it total from day one may not be helpful”.
Mr Opadokun also said each state has its peculiarity and categorization of revenue that is available to it, adding that Osun was among the states who collect the least from the federation account, hence, its limitation to what it could afford to pay to its workers.
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