Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum and Governor of Gombe State, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, has declared that many Governors cannot afford to pay the new national minimum wage of N70,000.
Yahaya, who spoke during a meeting with organised labour, civil society organisations, and traders associations at the Government House in Gombe, stressed that the limited allocation from the federation account will make it impossible to implement the new minimum wage at the state level.
On Monday, President Bola Tinubu signed the new national minimum wage, as part of measures to curtail the proposed nationwide protest over the current economic hardship.
He said, “It will be difficult for me to pay the N70,000 minimum wage, and I suspect many other states are in the same predicament.
“Even the previous minimum wage of N30,000 was a struggle for many state governments to implement, not to talk of the N70,000 amid the current economic situation, which makes it even more difficult.”
Governor Yahaya disclosed that Gombe has received only N2 billion out of N5 billion palliative the Federal Government released to states last year.
He also attributed the fuel subsidy removal, which has exacerbated the current hardship, to a decision initiated by former President Muhammadu Buhari and announced by President Bola Tinubu during his inauguration, due to its exclusion from the 2023 budget.
He said President Tinubu had no choice but to announce the subsidy removal, as the National Assembly was not inaugurated at the time of his swearing-in.
The Governor, however, said the Federal Government is still paying the subsidy, even more than before the president announced the removal on May 29, 2023.
He also urged stakeholders to collaborate and explore alternatives to protests, which he said could inevitably lead to violence and destruction.
