The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has called on the National Assembly to impose strict sanctions on states that fail to comply with the new national minimum wage once it is passed into law.

Hakeem Ambali, the NLC national treasurer, emphasized the necessity of political will to ensure enforcement, noting that previous minimum wage acts also included sanctions but lacked sufficient deterrence.

“Such clauses have always been in the bill. This will not be the first time that they will be included in the bill. But, the political will to enforce that caveat really matters, though the provision was not strong in the last minimum wage act,” Ambali stated.

He urged the Senate to oversee the implementation and ensure that any sanctions imposed are robust enough to prevent non-compliance. “Any sanction proposed should be strong enough to deter them from disobeying that law,” he added.

Ambali pointed out that some state governments have yet to fully comply with the existing N30,000 minimum wage, despite being identified by Labour. He noted that non-compliance often stems from a lack of prioritization for workers’ welfare. “For the state governments that haven’t fully complied with the N30,000 minimum wage payment… All of those in that category have been identified by Labour, and some of them have started approving the new minimum wage. That shows that it is all about the inability or deliberate refusal to pay due to a lack of priority for workers.”

Ambali argued that all governors and local government chairmen in Nigeria could afford to pay the minimum wage if they set the right priorities. “I believe there is no governor or local government chairman in Nigeria who cannot pay the minimum wage if we set our priorities right and desire true productivity in the country.”

He also called for direct engagement between President Bola Tinubu and the Labour Congress to find an amicable solution to the minimum wage issue.

“We have not seen any new proposal. We expect Mr. President to also engage Labour directly, so that we will have an amicable solution in the best interest of the country. The engagement does not need to take time. When there are two positions on the ground, we expect that there must be a way to harmonize the positions,” Ambali concluded.