The National Association of Nigerian Students (NAN) has faulted the call for decentralisation of minimum wage negotiation as advocated by former Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, who said states should be allowed to have separate negotiations with labour on the new minimum wage.
The student body, in a statement by the National Clerk of the Senate of NANS, Abdul-Yekinn Odunayo, described such calls as anti-workers.
The Federal Government and labour unions have been locked in negotiations over a new minimum wage for months. While the labour force insists on N250,000, the government is offering N62,000.
In an interview last week, Fayemi advocated for a decentralised minimum wage negotiation, arguing that states should determine what they can pay, factoring in their peculiarities.
But NANS, while reacting to Fayemi’s statement, called on the federal government to ignore the former governor and rather compel the state governors to implement the new minimum wage if it were signed into law.
Odunayo described Fayemi’s statement as “uncalled for and capable of setting the governors against the federal government.
“We want to urge the Federal Governor to ignore former governor Kayode Fayemi and his call for a decentralised minimum wage negotiation with the labour force.
“In fact, we want the federal government to compel state governors to pay the new minimum wage if it is signed into law and to impose serious sanctions and punishment on any state governor who defaults on the payment of the new minimum wage.
“It is dangerous and unproductive to allow state governors to determine what they can pay as the minimum wage. This can spell doom for Nigeria and set the governors against the federal government,” Odunayo said.
Meanwhile, NANS, under the leadership of Pedro Obi, has backed the labour unions in demanding better pay as the minimum wage.
While reiterating that Nigerian students will not relent in giving every necessary support and encouragement to the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration towards restoring the lost glory of our dear country and providing conducive conditions for Nigerians that would encourage Nigerians to live and work safely in the country,.
NANS reiterated that both the federal and state governments must prioritise workers’ welfare and implement policies that would improve the living conditions of Nigerians.
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