By Inalegwu Shaibu
ABUJA — THE Senate has
approved the N18,000 new
national minimum wage for
workers proposed by President
Goodluck Jonathan.
The bill was given an expeditious
passage as the Senate suspended
order 79 of its standing rules to
amend the National Minimum
Wage Act, thus increasing the
minimum wage from N7,500 to
N18,000.
Section 2 (1) of the National
Minimum wage states, “As from
the commencement of this act, it
shall be the duty of every
employer to pay a wage not less
than the national minimum wage
of N18,000 per month to every
worker under his establishment. ”
Deputy Senate President, Senator
Ike Ekweremadu, who presided
over the passage of the bill,
yesterday, said the new wage
would alleviate the sufferings of
workers.
He said: “We have responded
appropriately to the yearnings of
our workers whom we are
representing in this chamber.
Today is a happy day because we
have shown that we are
conscious of the sufferings of our
people. This country is rich
enough to cater for everybody if
we avoid the avarices of some
few people. ”
Ekweremadu, however, urged
workers to be more responsive in
paying taxes to enable
government fund the new wage
increase, saying: “The need has
come for us to pay more tax to
support the new wage. ”
Senate Leader, Senator Taslim
Folarin, who led the debate on
the bill advocated the amendment
of the Constitution to give state
governments the rights to
legislate on wage increment.
He said: “I recommend that a
more pragmatic approach should
be evolved in future to address
the subject of wage increase.
There is need to alter the Nigerian
Constitution by delisting of the
subject of minimum wage from
the exclusive legislative list to the
concurrent list to enable both the
federal and state governments
free hand in negotiating wage
increase matters separately with
their workers which will further
strengthen our fiscal federalism.”
Also contributing, Deputy Senate
Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-
Egba, said workers deserve more
than N18,000, noting that wage
increment must correspond with
standard of living.
He said: “Nigeria workers deserve
it if you look at the wastage of
government. It is also time for
revenue commission and the
salary and wages commission to
index wages against cost of
living. It should not be all the time
that we should always come to
the National Assembly to increase
wages. ”
Senator Smart Adeyemi, PDP, Kogi
who was also in support of the
new wage said it will be
unrealistic for some state
governments to claim that they
cannot pay the new wage.
He said, “I want to disagree that it
will be practically impossible for
some state governments to pay.
We have more resources to pay,
states in Nigeria are richer than
some of the states in West Africa,
so they can pay.
“The problem is mismanagement
of resources and corruption.
People divert money from this
country to abroad for selfish
gains. I hold the strong view that
N18000 is not enough.
I am also of the view that we
should have a bill to review the
minimum wage annually because
of the rate of inflation is on
annual increase. ”

www.vanguardngr.com/2011/02/senate-approves-n18000-national-minimum-wage/