Minimum wage: ‘It’s a national law, no governor can say he will not pay’ – Ngige

Senator Chris Ngige is the Minister of Labour and Employment. In this interview, he gives an account of his achievements as minister and clarifies the air on the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) saga. Nigerians will want to know the magic you used to calm the industrial relations sector within the past four years; […]

Senator Chris Ngige is the Minister of Labour and Employment. In this interview, he gives an account of his achievements as minister and clarifies the air on the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) saga.

Nigerians will want to know the magic you used to calm the industrial relations sector within the past four years; could you tell us more?

There is no real magic about it. The proactive stand of the ministry under my care and my experience as a worker with the Federal Ministry of Health came to the fore. I worked in the clinic before coming to the headquarters to manage the federal staff clinics in the states under the Department of Hospital Services. By the grace of God, I became the Governor of Anambra State when there was turbulence and serious labour crisis between the unions in the state and the outgoing Governor then, Dr. Chiwoke Mbadinuju, and I decided to learn how to manage labour disputes from there. I had a friendly NLC chairman in the state and his team who cooperated with me. From there, I discovered that labour can be carried along if you always tell them the truth. You can also manage labour well if you don’t have a labour leader that plays to the gallery. Luckily for me, Onyeama wasn’t. I realised that you can carry people along even if you have an economy that is not good.

One of the achievements is the issue of minimum wage…

It is a big one. Minimum wage is one of the products of the technical committee that worked on the palliatives as a result of the increase in pump price of PMS. Here, we were the anchor ministry and I led the government delegation comprising about seven ministers, the Salaries and Wages Commission and the state governments. It was a tortuous and excruciating discussion because of where we found ourselves and where we were coming from. About 27 states were unable to pay the existing minimum wage of N18,000, and now, there is a demand, a genuine demand necessitated by the increase in pump price of PMS and the fact that inflation has eaten deep into the N18,000, and also by the fact that there was a big depreciation of the dollar, even though we were not computing everything about wages with the dollar. But we know that 40 to 50 per cent of the needs of every worker is foreign-based. The minimum wage encompasses transport and housing needs.

You said it was a tortuous negotiation; now there are governors who say they cannot pay the N30,000 agreed upon.

No, it is a national law and no governor can say he will not pay. Issue of national minimum wage is item 34 on the exclusive legislative list of the third schedule of the Nigerian Constitution. Issue of labour is also there; and not on the concurrent list. If it is on the concurrent list, then they can make their own state assembly laws on that. Every state government is now owing workers if they have not start paying N30,000. They are owing workers effective from 18th of April, a new minimum wage. We are now in a committee working out a new template with which we will adjust upward the consequential adjustment upstairs for those already earning above N30,000. The minimum wage is for the most vulnerable down the ladder, and that is the man on grade level one step one. So, you must consequentially adjust for the man on grade level two, grade level three, grade level four and five, because that man on GL 1 Step 1 has overtaken them with his new payment. What we are trying to do now with the Salaries and Wages Commission is that we have a technical committee working out what the Federal Government will do for its workers and advice the state governments appropriately.

Recently, the NLC said you were trying to frustrate the implementation of the new Minimum wage, could you explain what they meant?

I saw the NLC president on TV saying so. But that was when they were trying to picket, and I pitied him because he was trying to blackmail me in the wrong direction. I am the prime mover of the new minimum wage. If you ask anybody in the Federal Executive Council (FEC), they will tell you so, and the president will also tell you so, and he has said so many times. So, the President of NLC is playing politics. But he can’t play politics on workers like that. If he wants to play politics, he should leave labour unionism because the labour laws do not allow labour leaders to play partisan politics.

So, when will workers begin to enjoy the new minimum wage?

They will enjoy it. In fact, they have started enjoying it. Employers in the private sector adjusted immediately because it is easier for them to do. In the government sector, the bureaucracy and bottleneck of government is responsible for the delay. You know that you must budget for it. That is what is causing the delay. But whenever the encumbrances are removed, they will pay arrears with effect from 18th April, 2019. So, the sooner an establishment starts paying, the better so that you don’t take a huge backlog that you cannot take.

So, I advise all employers of labour in Nigeria, including state governments, to immediately set up their Joint Negotiating Councils so that whatever we get from here, we give it to them and they will look at it based on their peculiarities. There are no two states that are the same in terms of the revenues coming from the federation account and internally generated revenue.

Do you not think that you would have been more successful if you had set up the Labour Advisory Council?

The Labour Advisory Council is an ILO creation. It is not in any of our books. It is an advice given to us by ILO. It used to be here, but in the last 10 years, it has not been functional. I tried to make it functional because it serves the same purpose like that of the National Council on Health; where you meet and discuss joint issues that are of national importance.

So, I am not saying that it is not a useful council. But my problem is that I put it in the 2017 budget, but it was removed as a budget line. I put it in the 2018 budget and it was again removed. I put it in the 2019 budget and defended it at the National Assembly and put up very stiff resistance on it because I was determined to inaugurate it this year as one of the landmark achievements.

Recently, the ministry had a running battle with labour, especially regarding the issue of NSITF board. Not minding what has been in the public domain, do you have any personal issues with Frank Kokori and the NLC president?

I have nothing personal against Comrade Frank Kokori who I respect very much because of the role he played during the June 12, struggle. I was in Lagos and I know the role he played as the General Secretary of NUPENG. He was an employed officer of NUPENG, but stayed there long enough and made those sacrifices. Many people made sacrifices for June 12. So, I don’t have anything personal against him. If anything, we hold him in high esteem.

The same goes for Comrade Wabba who I met here as NLC president, even though it was a factionalised NLC. There were two factions when I came. But for the NLC president, I don’t like his style of administration and I have told him that many times. He operates a system of divide and rule which I don’t like.