Minimum Wage: Kogi Workers stage protest, tasks Buhari

Organised Labour in Kogi on Tuesday appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to keep his electioneering promise to increase the minimum wage, insisting on N30,000.

Onu Edoka, the Chairman, state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), made the appeal while addressing workers and government functionaries after leading them in a protest march to Government House, Lokoja.

Edoka, in his message to President Muhammadu Buhari through Gov. Yahaya Bello, stressed the need for the Federal Government to ensure the implementation of the minimum wage.

The NLC chairman alleged that the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, was frustrating the good intention of the Buhari-led administration by trying to subvert the agitations for a new minimum wage.

He said Ngige’s intrigues and antics were not encouraging, insisting that N30,000 was nothing compared to what some top government officials spent monthly on feeding their dogs.

Edoka urged the president to ensure that his 2015 electioneering campaign promise on minimum wage was realised.

Responding on behalf of governor Bello, his Chief of Staff, Chief Edward Onoja, commended the workers for their orderly disposition, promising to convey their message to the appropriate quarters.

Onoja said that the state government had concluded plans to pay three months salary arrears to workers and pensioners in the state while their colleagues in the state tertiary institutions would be paid four months.

He assured the workers that the payment, expected to commence from week, followed the receipt of the Paris Club refund.

Onoja said that the threat by Organised Labour to shut down the entire system in the country on Nov. 6, would not happen as efforts were being intensified by governments at all levels to reach an amicable settlement on the matter.