Nigerian Senate yesterday suspended its standing rule 79 and set aside all legislative communication protocols to accelerate legislative actions on the controversial N27,000 Minimum Wage Bill, hence, the bill scaled through first and second reading st a single sitting .
This upper legislative chamber also set up an eight-man ad hoc committee representing the six geo-political zones to fine-tune the final passage of the Bill into law for the assent of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The members of the Senate ad hoc committee on Minimum Wage are Olushola Adayeye, who is the Chairman, Abu Ibrahim, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Labour, Binta Marsi, representing North East, Shehu Sani, North West, Francis Alimekina, South South, Sam Egwu, South East, Solomon Adokwe, North Central, and Solomon Adeola, South West.
Following a very thorough debate on the bill by the law makers , the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, clarified that contrary to the media reports, there is only a single Bill from the executive to the Senate which he said has a recommendation of N27,000 for both federal and state workers.
Recall that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, was reported to have said that in the recommendation of the Council of State, the federal government will pay its workers N30,000 while the state governments will pay their workers N27,000 as minimum wage.
To this end, he also said the recommendation in the Bill that the new national minimum wage be applied to all companies with up to twenty five workers may not be necessary because many low income workers may not be captured, pointing out that national minimum wage is for everybody.
Members of the House of Representatives, yesterday, faulted the Council of State for approving N27,000 as the new minimum wage when the agreement reached by the government, organised labour and the private sector was N30,000.
The lawmakers, therefore, expressed their readiness to adopt the amount proposed by the tripartite committee, whose report was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari.
At the plenary, yesterday, the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, read a letter by Buhari to the legislature, seeking an amendment to the Minimum Wage Act 1981, to reflect a new minimum wage of N27,000.
The President said the amount was proposed by the tripartite committee and ratified by the Council of State.
The letter read, “The purpose of this letter is to forward to you for legislative action a new Minimum Wage BiII to further amend the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act, 2011).
“In order to give a new National Minimum Wage of N27,000 per month to the lowest paid Nigerian worker from the current N18,000 per month. Thus, new bill and the amendments contained therein were arrived at after consultations by the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage, which was constituted by me in November 2017 to consider, make recommendations, and advise the government on this issue.
“The Tripartite Committee comprised representatives of the Federal Government, (Nigerian) Governor’s Forum, Organised Private Sector and the Organised Federations of Trade Unions in Nigeria.
“The Federal Executive Council, National Economic Council, and the National Council of State have all noted and approved these recommended amendments.”
Buhari added, “Other highlights of the amendments include: (i) Exemptions for establishments employing less than 25 persons, (ii) five years review period of the Act in consonance with the Constitutional Review for Pensions, (iii) alterations in the amount of fines payable by defaulters on the prosecution.
“Bearing in mind that issue of prescribing a National Minimum Wage for the Federation or any part thereof is within the Exclusive Legislative List of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), and listed as item No. 34 of Part 1 of the Second Schedule, it is my pleasure to forward this Bill for expeditious action.”
After reading the letter, Dogara pointed out that the N30,000, which was proposed by the tripartite committee, and which Federal Government said it would pay its workers in the lower cadre, was not reflected in the letter.
Ekwerremmadu noted that there must be conscious efforts to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor in the country, calling on the governors to improve their revenues by expanding all collectible taxes to finance the new minimum wage.
Earlier leading debate on the Bill, the Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan pointed out that the Bill is an executive communication, which Rule 79 of the Senate Order Book requires must pass through three readings, different days before being passed for executive assent.
However, he said “This is a very critical bill and I therefore, feel that the Senate should give it a very expeditious passage; and that requires suspension of Order 79, so that we take the first and second reading immediately and refer it to the relevant committee.
His words “This is one bill that enjoys the support of every political party in Nigeria. The public and civil servants require motivation; they need incentives, they need to be cared for. It is my desire and I am sure it is the position of all the senators that this bill be given expeditious passage so that it takes effect immediately in 2019.
“We will work on the Appropriation Bill 2019. We have to reflect the financial implication of this bill. Moving from the current N18,000 minimum wage is certainly a major increase; it may not be what our civil servants hoped for and wanted, but it is still an improved situation”,.
Meanwhile, in their respective contributions, most of the senators canvassed that Senate increase the Minimum wage from N27,000 as recommended by the executive to N30,000, saying that Nigerian workers deserve more, which they all agreed that the nation can offer if the waste in governance will be reduced.
Senator Barau Jibril in his contribution said , the economy of the country is such that there is no doubt that the N18,000 is no longer acceptable for minimum wage. He said governors have to look inwards to generate more revenue to be able to pay the new minimum wage, likewise the private sector.
Emmanuel Paulker, in his remarks, observed that Nigerian workers now live in financial stress to meet their daily needs, punting out that there are still backlog of salaries owed by some state governors. He warned that the senate will not take a situation where when the Bill is passed, some governors will not pay, as that will make a mess of the whole efforts.
Senator Anyanwu Samuel, i pointed out that the wage Bill is still not yet enough compared to other economies, noting that it is not something to celebrate. According to him, though the Council of State has recommended N27,000, the senate can make it better by jerking it to N30,000 so that the labour union does not go on strike again.
Senator Shehu Sani also canvassed that the senate increase the minimum wage to N30,000, just as senator Solomon Adokwe, in his argument said the salary increase should not be fifty per cent across board as being championed in some quarters.
He said this will overbloat the wage Bill of the state governments, but explained that if extra nine thousand extra is added to the salary of every worker as the increase in minimum wage, then, the financial burden will be such that government can bear.
Senator Barnabas Gemade, also said that Nigeria can do better as the nation is not as poor as being made to look, but due to mismanagement of resources by those incharge.
He said governors are facing billions of naira charges by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), yet they still claim they don’t have money to pay their workers, warning that government should do more to ensure better life for the workers.