Thirty-six States Governors have said that they can no longer pay the N18,000 minimum wage to workers owing to the poor state of the economy, Vanguard reports.
Rising from a crucial meeting that ended at the early hours of Thursday at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, said that the dwindling prices of oil had drastically affected their States’ income.
Specifically, they said that the burden of the wage was lighter when oil sold at $126 as against the current $41 per barrel. They therefore sought to have audience with President Muhammadu Buhari on the economy, resolving that the only way out of the quagmire was to diversify the economy to agriculture and mining.
Reading the communique issued at the end of the meeting, the Chairman of the Forum and governor of Zamfara state, Abdulaziz Yari hinted that the Forum also
backed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over the N2.1trillion sanction on MTN.
According to him, the governors agreed that the fine must be paid in full.