SCSN condemns delay in minimum wage assent

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Oyo State chapter, has condemned the unwarranted delay in the passage of the N30,000 minimum wage into law by President Muhammad Buhari. The lower and upper chambers of the national assembly had earlier in the year passed the N30,000 minimum wage bill as against the N27,000 recommendation of the council of states.

The bill has however been awaiting presidential assent for about a month now with different false news snowballing around regarding a purported reluctance of President Muhammad Buhari to assent to the passed Bill because it didn’t reflect his wish and that of the council of states.

According to the Oyo State Chairman of the industrial union, Comrade Babatunde Balogun who is popularly referred to as Liberty, ‘’we won’t be able to assure the President industrial peace and harmony in the country if the passed minimum wage bill is not assented to by the President before May-Day celebration on 1st of May, 2019’’.

Balogun stated further that the workers in the country have gone through embarrassing economic and financial situation since the inception of the Buhari led All Progressives Congress national government in Nigeria in 2015; saying ‘’one would have expected the government to pay the resilience and unbearable economic situation of workers with speedy assent of the passed Bill into law’’.

‘’But if the government failed to assent before the May day celebration, we won’t be able to assure the government industrial peace in the country. The workers economic conditions have moved from bad to worse under this government and all we can get now is this unwarranted and avoidable delay in assenting to the passed new minimum wage regime that we ‘ve been battling for 18months now. This is high act of wickedness and is unacceptable to us’’, Balogun stressed.