Speaking at the 7th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday, he emphasized that the NGF supports fiscal federalism, enabling individual states to pay wages based on their financial capacity.

Oyebanji explained, “The NGF is not against the living wage; no Governor is against the minimum wage. However, it must reflect fiscal federalism, ability, and capacity to pay. No Governor wants to retrench. If there is a minimum wage today without a concurrent increase in state earnings, no state can pay. We are committed to giving you a living wage, but we must consider what each state can afford.”

He urged Ekiti State workers to embrace agriculture, noting that his administration had cleared over 2,000 hectares of land for free allocation to interested residents.

“My appeal to civil servants is to form cooperative societies and approach the Ministry of Agriculture for support. We are clearing land free of charge, providing inputs, and committing to purchasing produce from you. As of today, we have cleared more than 2,000 hectares across Ekiti State,” he said.

Governor Oyebanji highlighted the crucial role civil servants play in the state’s administration and development, particularly in achieving the Six Pillars of his administration.

He attributed the administration’s achievements to the efficiency and effectiveness of the workers, underscoring their importance as stakeholders in the state’s growth.

Prof. Muhammad Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, made this statement in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday.

Despite these constraints, Prof. Pate emphasized the government’s dedication to enhancing the welfare and wages of doctors, nurses, and other health professionals.

He said, “We appreciate them. Some have chosen to go abroad for training, and we have approved this with the expectation that they will return after their training. We are also expanding the training of those who remain and are working on improving their conditions.”

He highlighted ongoing efforts in wage review, noting that submissions have been made to the Salary Incomes and Wages Commission to adjust the remuneration for the health workforce.

This statement comes in the wake of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) postponing the review of the minimum wage to allow for further consultations. On June 12, 2024, President Bola Tinubu, in his Democracy Day address, assured the Organised Labour of an upcoming Executive Bill to establish a new national minimum wage.

The President is expected to make a decision regarding the proposed N62,000 minimum wage from the government and private sector side, and the N250,000 demand from Labour.

He also revealed that the state government would soon introduce a new minimum wage scheme.

According to the governor, workers currently earning a minimum wage of N35,000 or more have been receiving a salary of N70,000 or above since the beginning of the year.

“The civil servant and all public officers in Lagos know that since January, we have continued to pay the wage allowance of a minimum of N35,000 over and above what they were earning before.

“What this means is that people that are earning a minimum of N35,000 or more before are now earning over N70,00. That is what they have been enjoying since January.

“So it is important for people to know that we make these things very clear that this government has doubled up to ensure that at this difficult time, it has not left the citizens on their own,” Sanwo-Olu said at a state function on Thursday.

The governor while giving an update on the intervention the state embarked on to ameliorate the current economic hardship,  said his administration will distribute food items to 500,000 households in the state through unions and local governments.

Speaking on the ‘Ounje Eko’ initiative, where food items are sold at discounted prices, the governor said, “We created 59 makeshift markets outside of the regular markets out of our 57 local government and local council development areas and made it Sunday-Sunday market.”

This update was provided by Bawa Mokwa, the Director of Press and Public Relations at the Office of the Accountant General, in a statement issued on the same day.

Mokwa stated that the earlier glitch experienced with the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) platform has been successfully resolved. As a result, federal government workers can expect to receive their January salaries without further delays.

“We have sorted out the issue, and workers will start receiving their payment starting this Thursday evening,” he said.

Over 1,000 culprits were said to have been discovered in one ministry while 500 others found in other ministries, departments and agencies during a service-wide verification exercise will be delisted from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System.

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, disclosed this while speaking at the ‘National Policy Dialogue on Entrenching Transparency in Public Office Recruitment in Nigeria,’ organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, in Abuja on Tuesday.

The programme was attended by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, the Provost, Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria, Prof Olatunde Babawale, Prof Isaac Obasi and other dignitaries.

The HoS explained that her administration has taken decisive steps to nip in the bud the alarming sharp practices and acts of impunity being perpetrated on the IPPIS, as well as to purge the system of all infiltrations.

She stated, “It would be recalled that in March last year, the office informed of the detection of fake letters of employment presented in some ministries. For instance, in the past year, in one ministry alone, over 1,000 individuals bearing fake letters of appointment were detected.

“In the light of the aforementioned, it is disheartening to point out that the office recently received a report from the Federal Civil Service Commission forwarding the names of over 500 persons in various MDAs in possession of fake letters of appointment and which are to be delisted from the IPPIS platform.

“Similarly, following the outcome of the Service-Wide Verification Exercise for officers recruited from 2013 – 2020, the Federal Civil Service Commission has also requested the suspension of the salaries of over 3,000 officers across the MDAs who failed to appear for the exercise pending further clearance.”

According to her, the government’s effort to stop financial leakages in the civil service had created a gap leading to a series of implementation issues, adding that as of March 2022, over 380,000 officers had been captured on the IPPIS payroll comprising 66,000 and 320,000 for core and non-core MDAs, respectively.

Yemi-Esan further said that her office is carrying out a mop-up exercise in the core and non-core MDAs which would be rounded off in September.

The minimum wage bill has been passed into law in April 2019 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the provisions of the law, all employers in the country are expected to pay their workers not less than the stipulated amount, which is N30, 000.

But some states governors are yet to pay the minimum wages.

While faulting the governors yet to pay the N30,000 wages, Ngige said negotiations were ongoing between him and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, over instituting legal actions against governors who have faulted in paying the new minimum wage.

The Minister disclosed this during his appearing on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, stating that governors not paying the minimum wage were breaching the law of Nigeria.

According to Ngige: “If you read the Act well, you will see the applicability of the Act. The applicability is that all parts of the Federation (Section II); Section III also says N30,000 shall be paid, the operating word is shall.

“It does not give room for picking and choosing, it is a must. The state governors that are not paying are breaching the law of the land.

“This is a national law that states what you will pay to the lowest-paid employee (worker) in your establishment; state governments are employers… they are caught in the web of this law until repealed.

“I am negotiating with the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF); the law permits me to take them to court.

“I can take any employer to court. If governors have immunity, I can start from the secretary to the government, to the head of service, and go down to the State Executive Council; take them all to court and I do not need any permission.”

The threat comes a week after Governor El-Rufai announced the plan to disengage civil servants in the state, citing fiscal reasons.

According to him, a significant amount of the statutory federal allocations to the state is being spent on the wages of public servants, adding that the decision was one of the necessary moves to salvage the state’s finances.

Reacting, the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba during a news conference in Abuja, after a meeting of the Central Working Committee, said all members of the NLC will down tools nationwide for five days in the first instance and when nothing is done by relevant government agencies, the workers union will think of the next line of action.

Wabba explained that the union’s plan for a nationwide strike over El-Rufai’s action is predicated on the assumption that the governor is having support from other states and the Federal Government.

The NLC President, however, said the action was taken as a last resort due to all the communications that were written on the issue to the Kaduna State Government and were yet to receive any attention.

According to him, the CWC, therefore, thought that workers should not be allowed to die in silence as thousands of workers who had been sacked were yet to be paid in line with the provisions of the law.

“CWC has decided and has also recommended to the National Executive Council that labour will withdraw all services from either public or private from all sectors of the economy for five days in the first instance.”

“And where there is no remorse, there is going to be a total action because we believe that El-Rufai is not alone in this action that neoliberal forces and also some government are also part of it.

“This action is going to be total and unconditional and therefore, all unions will be issuing statements and directives to their members to take this directive seriously and that the action will go ahead,” Wabba said.

The airline announced this in a statement on Friday, stating that was due to the adverse effect of COVID-19 pandemic.

The press statement was titled, “Arik Air management declares 300 staff redundant”.

The company explained that a redundancy package would be provided for the affected workers with the help of the aviation unions.

The statement read in part, “Arising from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the constrained ability of the airline to complete heavy maintenance activities and return its planes to operations, stunted revenues against increasing operational costs, the management of Arik Air (In Receivership) has declared 300 staff members redundant to its current level of operations.

“The leadership of the impacted unions has been contacted to negotiate a redundancy package for the affected staff.”

Arik Air added that over 50 percent of its workforce of over 1,600 staff have been on furlough in the past six months.