Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, on Thursday, suggested ways for the Federal and State governments to pay the new minimum wage.
The Organised Labour and the Federal Government have yet to reach an agreement on the new minimum wage, with the former rejecting the latter’s N62,000 offer.
During the last meeting held by the Tripartite Committee on the New Minimum Wage on Friday 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.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has however said the Federal Government will cut its coat according to size, meaning what is affordable will be implemented as new minimum wage.
READ ALSO: Minimum Wage: We’ll Cut Our Coat According To Size, We’ll Pay What We Can Afford – Tinubu
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Falana insisted that federal and state governments can pay the national minimum wage if looted monies are recovered.
The human rights lawyer urged the Nigerian authorities to muster the political will to take money from looted funds or money withheld from the federation account to pay the minimum wage.
“The state governments that are saying they have no money to pay, 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,” Falana said.
