By Ken Afor
In a bid to cushion the effect of economic hardship in Nigeria, Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki, alongside his counterparts from Niger and Lagos, Umar Bago and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, have commenced the payment of wage awards for workers in their states.
Governor Bago, during the state executive council meeting on Wednesday in Minna, announced the commencement of the payment of a N20,000 wage award for all civil servants in the state.
According to the governor, workers will start receiving alerts from Wednesday.
In addition, the governor disclosed plans for feeding people at different locations within the wards during Ramadan and the distribution of 120 trucks of grain palliatives to alleviate the people’s suffering.
Also, Governor Sanwo-Olu, in December 2023, approved a N35,000 wage award for civil servants in the state pending the review of the national minimum wage.
While the wage award is a temporary measure, Edo state government, in June 2023, following the removal of fuel subsidy, increased the minimum wage paid to its workers from N30,000 to N40,000 – the highest in the country.
The state government also reduced the number of workdays from five days to three days a week for civil servants.
The wage award was in response to the appeal by President Bola Tinubu to state governments to implement the scheme to alleviate the economic hardships experienced by the people.
President Tinubu, while in Minna on Monday, March 11, 2024, for an official visit, emphasized that implementing the wage awards at the state level would offer essential relief to the economy without triggering inflationary pressures.
His words: “If all of you, the sub-nationals have been paying the wages award, pending the determination of the new salary wage. Let all the state start paying the wages award. Whatever they are taking now plus the wage award would relieve the public.
“Please, I am not giving an order, I am appealing to you states, start paying the wages awards, let everyone start paying it. It is a relief to the people. The mechanism is the fact that that it won’t be inflationary if we announce the new salary wage in a few weeks or months, they would have gotten use to the basic wages of N30,000 plus the wages award, it will have dampening effect on the market. Please get sub-nationals together and NEC should adopt this.”
