The Nigeria Labour Congress, on Wednesday, threatened a showdown as the Governor of Gombe State, Muhammad Yahaya, declared that the state would not be able to pay the N70,000 new minimum wage.
President Bola Tinubu signed the new minimum wage bill into law on Monday, making N70,000 payment mandatory.
But the Gombe governor, while speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting on Tuesday at the state Government House in Gombe, said, “I cannot pay the N70,000 minimum wage, and I suspect many other states are in the same predicament.”
In an interview with news correspondent on Wednesday, the NLC Secretary in Gombe State, Ibrahim Fika, said the declaration by the Gombe governor, who is also the Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum, was a recipe for renewed struggle by organised labour.
The NLC scribe said, “The governor has said his mind before us. We are anticipating the table of the national headquarters for the adjustment; from there we will start our own struggle because as we all know, the new minimum wage is now a law after passing through scrutiny in the legislature and getting the presidential assent.
“We don’t see the reason why a governor will say he can’t afford to pay N70,000. We are expecting governors to pay more than that, not less. We will do our possible best to see that Gombe enjoys the new minimum wage by God’s grace.”