Governor Bassey Otu of Cross Rivers State has announced N40,000 as the new minimum wage for civil servants in the state.
He made the announcement on Wednesday at U. J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar, where he joined the 2024 Workers Day Celebration, the spokesperson to the governor, Nsa Gill said in a statement.
According to the statement, Mr Otu said the new minimum wage aligns with “the realities of the time rather than sentiments”.
“Owing to the peculiarity of Cross River State regarding its lean finances occasioned by low Statutory Federal Allocation and aggravated by the unfavourable State GDP to Debt servicing ratio, the new wage implementation is in line with the realities of the time rather than sentiments.”
The governor appealed to the workers to exercise patience regarding the backlog of gratuities dating back to 2014.
“Government is presently on the verge of concluding necessary arrangements for the staggered payment of outstanding gratuity to its retired workers.
“Accordingly, whatever action aimed at alleviating the suffering of the workers is readily embraced by me. One of such measures is the payment of a living wage to the workforce.
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“May I, therefore, state categorically that the government of Cross River State, under my leadership, is willing and ready to put smiles on the faces of its workers and in line with the season of sweetness which characterises my administration,” the governor said.
Minimum wage
With the announcement, Mr Otu has become the second South-south state governor to unilaterally announce a new minimum wage amidst ongoing negotiations between the federal government and labour unions on a new national minimum wage.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State announced N70,000 as the new minimum wage for civil servants in the state.
President Bola Tinubu in January constituted a 37-man National Minimum Wage Committee with the mandate to recommend a new minimum wage for workers in the country.
The committee which had collated inputs across the six geopolitical zones in the country during its public hearing is yet to submit a report for the federal government.
Consequently, Mr Tinubu did not announce a new national minimum on 1 May as anticipated.
Nigeria’s law allows the minimum wage to be reviewed every five years. The current N30,000 was last reviewed in 2019 and a new minimum was expected to take effect from 1 April.
But some governors unilaterally announcing a new minimum wage for civil servants in their states without waiting for the outcome of the national minimum wage committee suggests they may have opted out of any anticipated recommendation of the committee.
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