Governors That Can’t Pay 30K Minimum Wage Shouldn’t Be Sleeping At Night- Obaseki

Ex National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole has come out to say that states that cannot implement the minimum wage should not exist.

He recently revealed this via a recent interview, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, it is an insult for the APC-dominated National Assembly to entertain a bill seeking to remove the minimum wage from exclusive legislative list to concurrent list, and he can’t understand why state governors have refused to implement the N30,000 new National Minimum Wage.

He added that governors who refuse to pay the token to diligent workers in their states should find it hard to sleep at night.

His words, “You cannot have a National Assembly that takes so much every day, every week, and every month and on the floor in National Assembly, somebody is questioning why a Nigerian worker should earn $60 for 30 days which is about $2 a day. I am a believer that if you are at the top of a mango tree and you are feasting on top of a mango tree and I’m on the ground and you are trampling my head, I have to grab your feet.”

“I believe Nigeria would be fine. But the only thing I am worried about is the resurgence of ethnic champions and even religious bigots who now partition the country in a way that the ruling class unites in comfort, but they go back to their localities and play up primordial sentiments. I argued a few days ago that if there is going to be division, or if there is going to be a fight between anybody, it cannot be between North and South; East and West; it has to be between the poor and the rich. So, when you oppress your own people and they want to ask questions, you point to the other tribe or you point to the other religion. All those are not the issue.”

“I want Nigerian workers to organise, across all the primordial sentiments and become a force, capable not only of thinking or talking, but also assertive and prevent bad governance. We can’t accept any Nigerian governor today refusing to implement the minimum wage. He should not go to bed. President Buhari said, and I don’t think you can have more support than that.”

“How do you sleep Mr Governors, when you have not paid your workers salaries for one month, two months or six months?” If I have a Commander-in-Chief saying that, I don’t need any other licence to close down any of those states that refuse to perform. If your state is not capable or competent to meet the most basic social protection, then why should you exist?”