The Presidency, yesterday, chided those accusing President Muhammadu Buhari of reneging on earlier acceptance of the N30,000 recommended as the new National Minimum Wage by the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Committee, saying that the President has never mentioned any figure since he received the report.
The Presidency also said that the controversy over the minimum wage was unnecessary as the President being a stickler of due process, would allow the report to pass through the gamut of lawmaking.
A statement by the Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina in Abauja said, “These reports are contrary to what transpired on Tuesday when the committee presented its Report to the President.”
Responding, Buhari, while acknowledging the concerns raised by government on affordability and labour’s focus on meaningful increase, stated clearly in a speech, which was made available to the media: “In a way, both arguments are valid. I want to assure you all that we will immediately put in place the necessary machinery that will close out these open areas.
“Our plan is to transmit an Executive Bill to the National Assembly for passage within the shortest possible time. I am fully committed to having a new National Minimum Wage Act in the very near future.
“As the Executive Arm commences its review of your submission, we will continue to engage you all in closing any open areas presented in this report. I, therefore, would like to ask for your patience and understanding in the coming weeks.”
The statement added that from the above, and throughout the report-submission ceremony, the President never mentioned any figure, stressing that what Buhari said was that he was committed to having a new minimum wage which would be after the report of the committee has been reviewed by the executive and legislative processes of government and an appropriate bill presented to him for assent.
“Until the proposed minimum wage has gone through the whole gamut of law-making, President Buhari, who is a stickler for due process, will not be caught in this unnecessary web of controversy, which amounts to putting the cart before the horse and hair-splitting.
“As for those who have latched onto the concocted controversy to play cheap politics, we appeal to them to remember that elections are not won through loquaciousness, and trying to demean the President at every drop of a hat.
“But then, it is not surprising, as they have nothing else to sell to Nigerians, if they don’t ride on the name of the President. Stiff judgment awaits them at the polls,” the Presidency said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government, yesterday, told the National Industrial Court (NIC), sitting in Abuja that negotiations are still ongoing with regards to the proposed N30, 000.00 new minimum wage.
The Federal Government made the disclosure on a day both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), shunned the legal action that resulted to the ex-parte order that stopped them from embarking on a nationwide industrial action to protest the non-implementation of the new minimum wage for workers.
It would be recalled that the NIC had in a ruling that was delivered by Justice Sanusi Kado on November 2, ordered the labour unions to suspend the planned strike action, pending the determination of a suit Federal Government lodged before it.
The court said the preservative injunction was to avert devastating effect the strike would have on the nation, the economy and the hardship it would occasion for Nigerians at large.
Justice Kado specifically barred the NLC, the TUC and the Incorporated Trustees of the Nigerian Governors Forum, who were listed as 1st, 2nd and 3rd Defendants in the matter, respectively, from taking steps capable of destroying the ‘Res’ (subject matter) of the case before him.
However, following a truce that was brokered between Federal Government and the organised labour, the planned strike was called-off on November 5.
The report of agreement for payment of the N30, 000.00 wage had since been transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for his consideration and approval.
Meanwhile, at the resumed proceeding on the case before the NIC, yesterday, none of the three Defendants was represented by a lawyer.
The Federal Government, which filed the suit through the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, was represented by a lawyer from the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr. Emmanuel Omonowa.
Omonowa told the court that negotiations on the new minimum wage were still going on.
Consequently, he pleaded the court to grant the parties more time to perfect the negotiations and submit a final report to the court.
According to him: “Pursuant to Order 42(1) of the National Industrial Court Rules, the court should allow parties to see the possibility of amicable settlement of the matter”.
Owing to the request by Federal Government’s lawyer, Justice Kado reactivated the order that restrained the organised labour union from embarking on strike action over the minimum wage dispute.
The court warned all the parties to avoid taking any step that would cause disruptions in the case.
The matter was subsequently adjourned till January 30, 2019, for parties to report the outcome of the negotiations to the court.
The Federal Government had in a motion it attached to the suit marked NICN/ABJ/287/2018, insisted that the country was at risk of plunging back to recession should the labour unions be allowed to embark on nationwide strike action.
It decried that the strike would equally jeopardise the health of citizens that may seek access to health facilities, and also affect the livelihood of many Internally Displaced Persons currently sheltered in various camps owing to recent flooding that ravaged some states.
The Presidency had earlier debunked allegation that President Buhari rejected report of the negotiation team that accepted to pay the proposed N30, 000.00 minimum wage.
Meanwhile, Academic activities have been grounded completely in the three tertiary institutions in Rivers State due to the ongoing indefinite strike ordered by the national leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which entered its sixth day, yesterday.
This came after ASUU members in the three universities held separate congresses to officially announce commencement of the strike in their various schools.
The ASUU Chairman in the University of Port Harcourt, Comrade Austine Sado, in an interview with The Tide, urged parents and students to understand that the strike was intended to revamp the university system in the country.
The UNIPORT ASUU boss, however, regretted that despite the time given to the Federal Government, not one item on the union’s demands has been implemented since the renegotiation process started in 2017.
On his part, the ASUU Chairman in Rivers State University, Emmanuel Okulo clarified further that the Federal Government was planning to privatize funding of universities.
Ukulo also said that government’s failure to grant licenses for the university pension fund and refusal to mainstream their earned allowances into the budget, among others, were responsible for the current strike.
Also speaking, ASUU Chairman in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Ugochukwu Agi, in an interview, said members were worried that government has continued to pay lip service to issues of education.
Agi, however, urged the Rivers State Government to address the issue of harmonized salary structure that has been denied lecturers in the state institution.