President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the National Minimum Wage Bill into law. The bill, which recommends N30,000 as the new national minimum wage, was earlier passed by the National Assembly.
The President’s Personal Assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, confirmed this development earlier today via a brief tweet.
President @MBuhari has signed the National Minimum Wage Bill into law.
— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) April 18, 2019
Following the presidential assent to the minimum wage bill, the bill has officially become an Act of the National Assembly.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, further explained that the Act gives workers the right to sue an employer in attempt to recover the balance or authorise the Minister of Labour to take action against such an employer in the event of a refusal to pay the stipulated wage.
Assent to the minimum wage bill, a response to NLC’s ultimatum
Earlier, the minimum wage bill was transmitted to the National Assembly on January 22nd. It had a recommendation of N27,000 as the new minimum wage. However, the National Assembly raised the figure to N30,000.
Read Also: Senate approves N30,000 minimum wage
Prior to the Presidential assent to the bill, the Nigerian Labour Congress, NSE, reportedly gave President Buhari until May 1st to sign the new minimum wage bill. The President of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba, disclosed this while addressing newsmen in Abuja last Saturday.
“The expectation of workers is that President should be able to sign the Minimum Wage Bill, doing all due diligence before 1st of May. That is the position we have made very clearly and that is our expectation.
“We have not gotten to where we are on a platter of gold, we will continue to engage the process. So our expectation is that yes, workers day, we demand that this thing will also be delivered and therefore we are working hard and hoping that that will be done.”
The Union was after a quick implementation
As Nairametrics reported, President Muhammadu Buhari, last month, received the report of the Bismarck Rewane’s Technical Advisory Committee on the implementation of the new National Minimum Wage.
although personally i am in support of minimum wage struggle, but i know it is not the cure of our sufferings in nigeria today. i say so because if all other factors such as producing thing we consume are on ground, then we may enjoy it, but since the the country depends mostly on importation, fnd to pay all this accumulation will be herculean for government which no doubt will force them to increase VAT,maybe petrol cost etc this if it happens will increase the cost of goods and services,thereby cancelling the effect of the minimum wage.