National Telescope national telescope newspaper
Olatunde Oluwasola|
Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has stated that both the federal and state governments have the capacity to pay the national minimum wage if looted monies are recovered.
In an interview with Channels Television, Falana said, “The state governments claiming they have no money to pay are not telling the truth. The money is there. All they need, including the Federal Government, is to muster the political will to collect and recover money either looted or withheld from the federation account.”
This comes as the organized labour and the federal government have yet to reach an agreement on the new minimum wage, with the latter rejecting the former’s N62,000 offer.
At the last meeting of the Tripartite Committee on the New Minimum Wage in Abuja, labour reduced its demand to N250,000 from N494,000, while the Federal Government increased its offer from N60,000 to N62,000.
The proposed minimum wage may face a delay until July 2, as the National Assembly is currently on holiday.
Falana urged Nigerian authorities to muster the political will to pay the minimum wage.
