Senate May Move Wages From Exclusive List

The Senate is intending to take wages away from the exclusive list and place it in the concurrent list to enable each state of the federation pay its work force according to its  financial resources, the Deputy President of the Senate, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, has said.

Dropping the hint in a chat with newsmen in Enugu recently, Chief Ekweremadu noted that the move had become necessary to put a stop to the incessant industrial action embarked upon by workers in various states of the federation to press home their demand for full implementation of the N18,000 new minimum wage by state governments in the country.

According to him, when implemented, this would enable workers who want to earn more money than what they get at the moment to go to states where they think their dreams can be realised fully or half way as the case may be.

His words: “I do not think that in a country like Nigeria, wages should be in the exclusive list instead of the concurrent list. But let me also add that because the issue of wages is in the exclusive list, there is nothing any state governor in Nigeria can do at the moment about payment of N18,000 minimum wage to workers in their various states than to comply”.

The Deputy Senate President said: “I sympathise with the governors anyway, but there is nothing they can do than to comply with the law establishing the new national minimum wage”.

Meanwhile, fielding reporter’s question on the chances of Igbos to produce the next president of Nigeria in 2015, Senator Ekweremadu, quickly advised Nigerians to always talk about a president who sees the entire country as his constituency, and not one from their own ethnic extraction.

He reasoned that presidency is not the major problem or concern of the Igbo man today, advising the Igbos to ensure that they are part and parcel of decision making process in the country, adding that every body cannot be president of Nigeria at the same time.

“What the country needs now is president who looks at the entire country as his constituency, not a sectional president. Every Nigerian, not just the Igbos must have a sense of belonging in an entity called Nigeria. When that is done, the agitation for president of their own ethnic extraction would be less. I am looking forward to a day where there will be president that will be acceptable to all Nigerians, no matter where he comes from”, he further stressed.

The law maker, therefore, urged Nigerians irrespective of tribe, religion or political  affiliation to be patient with the federal government, led by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and always do things that would unite the country, rather than involving themselves in acts capable of causing disunity among the citizenry.