President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday inaugurated an advisory technical committee for the implementation of the proposed N30, 000 new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
He also announced that the Federal Government would review the salaries of workers currently earning above the national minimum wage.
The appointment of the advisory committee comes a day after the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) held a nationwide protest over the wage demand.
It is not clear whether the review of the salaries of those earning higher than the current minimum wage would be downward or upward.
According to the president, the re-negotiation will commence shortly after the passage of the new minimum wage law.
“At the federal level, we have made adequate provision for the increase in the minimum wage in our 2019 budget proposals, which we submitted to the National Assembly. Therefore, we will be able to meet the additional costs that will be incurred in moving up all personnel who are currently earning below the new minimum wage.
“We anticipate that after the new minimum wage has been passed into law, we will be going into negotiations for salary review for all the workers who are already earning above the new minimum wage. It is therefore important that we are properly prepared to meet these demands,” the president said.
“I want to make it clear that there is no question about whether the national minimum wage will be reviewed upwards. I am committed to a review of the minimum wage,” he added.
The committee’s terms of reference include proposing a work plan and modalities for implementation. It is to be headed by a popular economist, Bismark Rewane.
There have been mixed reactions however on Rewane’s appointment. Dr. Ikechukwu Kelikume, a lecturer at the Lagos Business School, was pessimistic. “When you take an economic analyst to the corridors of power where he will begin to face off with political influence, the result is usually different. Know also that political economy trumps the macro-economy.
