‘How Minimum Wage ’ll Affect Job Recruitment’

Governor Peter Obi of Anambra said in Abakaliki recently  that the payment of the new minimum wage would affect job recruitment in many states.

Obi, who was reacting to the speech of the Most Rev. Alaba-Job, President of Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria in Abakaliki, said the implementation of the law would increase unemployment.

“The payment of the new minimum wage would make it difficult for state governments to recruit more workers as there would be no funds to pay them.

“This would ultimately increase the unemployment rate in the country, which has posed a serious challenge to most governments,” the governor said.

He said the payment of minimum wage was never treated as uniform in a federation, where revenues and responsibilities of federating states differed.

“In the U.S. for instance, there are varying budgetary provisions among various states, which make their payment modalities to also differ.

“There is no way you expect states such as Anambra and Ebonyi, also for instance, to pay the same minimum wage with Lagos, Akwa-Ibom among others, who receive more from the Federation Allocation.”

Obi, who is the Chairman of South-East Governors’ Forum, said that states within the zone had agreed to pay the minimum within the limits of their resources.

Alaba-Job in his remark, said Ebonyi was chosen to host the second plenary of the conference for the year because of the decision to host it in one of the ecclesiastical provinces.

He expressed concern over the controversy generated by the payment of the new minimum wage and called on relevant stakeholders to resolve the issue urgently.

“The situation could not have arisen if it was properly articulated before being passed into law and accented by President Goodluck Jonathan,” he said.

The bishop said the conference would discuss the issue of Islamic Banking and make its stand known through its communiqué.

He called on the government to proactively tackle the security situation in the country.

“Greed and corruption have completely destroyed the country’s security system, as we hope that all measures taken by government to curb the trend would yield positive results.

Gov. Martin Elechi of Ebonyi said the state was honoured to host the conference, in spite of its infrastructure inadequacies and environmental challenges.

The conference, scheduled to last till September 18, is being attended by 52 bishops.