Niger state governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, on Tuesday reassured the state chapter of the organised labour of his readiness to pay the new minimum wage, just as he pledged that welfare of the state workforce remain his major priority.
Governor Bello gave the assurance in Minna, when he received the state chapter of organised labour who joined their counterparts across the country to protest the non-transmission of the bill for implementation of the new national minimum wage of N30,000 to the National Assembly for action.
The governor maintained that there is need to look into how worker’s welfare should be improved in order to ensure improve standard of living and service delivery.
He assured the placard-carrying protesters of his readiness to comply with the Federal Government as soon as the final nod is granted on the minimum wage.
“I am 100 percent in support of the need to look at whatever is happening on how to improve the life and standard of living of our people.
“I have no problem with the implementation of the payment of N30,000 minimum wage to our workers and I believe this matter will soon be put to rest.
“The welfare of our workers is something we have to look into properly,” he emphasized.
According to him, “Niger state has already started showing commitment by increasing salary by 25 percent recently and we have just released the sum of N3 billion for the payment of pension and death gratuity.
It is on record that death gratuity has not been paid in this state since 2004, until 2016 that we first paid and one was also released last month”.
He maintained that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is also concerned about the welfare of civil servants in the country, hence the he made provision for the N30,000 minimum wage in the 2019 budget.
Governor Bello then assured the workforce in the state that his administration would do everything humanly possible to improve their welfare.
Earlier, the NLC National President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba represented by the Head of Public Affairs of the union, Comrade Benson Upah and the state chairman, Comrade Idris Ndako who led the protest to the Government House in their respective remarks appealed for the urgent implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
He added that civil servants are partners in progress and are also the engine room that drive the country’s economy, hence the need to accord priority to their welfare.
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