Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has said that all 36 states in Nigeria can afford to pay minimum wage following the Federal Government’s removal of fuel subsidy.
“There is no state in Nigeria today that cannot pay more than the minimum wage because the government removed fuel subsidy last year and President Tinubu told Nigerians that the money made from that policy will be used,” Falana stated this in an interview on Channels TV’s The Morning Brief.
“Any state government or employer of labour that does not pay the national minimum wage, we have agreed this time around (our law firm and the labour unions) we are not going to allow the non-payment of wages. They will be dragged to court.
“We are going to ensure the law is complied with, including the fact that we will be paying the court to make an order, deducting what belongs to the workers monthly from the source in Abuja. We cannot go like this.”
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Falana urged the Attorney General of the Federation who is also Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, to sanction states that fail to pay the current N30,000 minimum wage.
He said since the payment of the minimum wage is an agreement entered into freely, state governments unable to honour such a deal are breaching the law.
“Once a new agreement, a new minimum wage becomes the law of the country. The Federal Government has a duty, and the Attorney General of the country has a duty to drag any state government that does not pay to court,” he said.
