Oyo Governor-Elect, Seyi Makinde, has said his state cannot pay the new National Minimum Wage of N30,000 just signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to him, state governments ought to have been allowed to negotiate the new minimum wage for their workers as the condition of living varies from state to state.
Briefing journalists in Abuja after the induction programme for returning and newly elected governors, Makinde said that he intends to renegotiate the implementation of the new minimum wage with the state branch of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
Assessing Oyo’s ability to pay the legal N30,000 minimum wage, the Governor-Elect stated: “It has been signed into law. I personally believe that individual states should have been allowed to negotiate this because conditions of living in Lagos are obviously not the same as living in Ibadan.
“And I will definitely say without fear or favour that it’s part of the reasons why we are thinking of restructuring. That’s a federal system of government.
“We have a federation but the state governments I believe, are no subordinate to the federal government. They are coordinate governments.