Minimum wage: Governors are not miracle workers, Amosun tells workers

Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, on Thursday dashed the hopes of workers longing for the proposed new minimum wage, saying governors are not miracle workers.

He said with the dwindling allocation state governments received from the federal government, it was difficult for them to implement new minimum wage.

Amosun spoke at a Town Hall Meeting held on 2019 budget at the June 12, Cultural Centre in Abeokuta.

While maintaining that governors are neither magicians nor miracle workers that would turn things around, the governor said many states are still struggling to pay the current N18,000 minimum wage.

Amosun said that with the situation on ground in the country, only seven or eight governors pay full salaries.

“The situation now is like an old woman with load walking gently, if she now adds more loads, she won’t walk at all. With N18,000 minimum wage, as we speak in this country, only seven or eight governors are able to pay full salaries.

“We are not magicians or miracle workers that will turn things around, we only make to do with what we have, nobody has the money.”

On the All Progressives Congress (APC), he insisted that his acclaimed governorship candidate, Adekunle Abdulkabir Akinlade would emerge as the next governor in the  2019 elections “to build on his legacy,” he said.

He said, “we are going to win every local governments in the state, even the local government where our enemies are, we are ready for them. They should go and we shall meet them there.”