The governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Charles Soludo said the Federal Government’s proposal of ₦62,000 as the new minimum wage will crumble small-scale businesses and further deteriorate the economic situation.
The former bank chief warned that not all state governments and the Organised Private Sector have the capability to pay the ₦62,000 being proposed by the Federal Government and the ₦250,000 demand of the Organised Labour.
He spoke on Wednesday at The Platform Nigeria, a programme by Lagos-based church, Covenant Nation, to mark the 2024 Democracy Day.
Soludo warned that an unsustainable wage might lead to job losses and spiral economic challenges in the country.
Though before now, the 35 State governors under the umbrella of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum had described minimum wage demands of Labour as sustainable.
Meanwhile, Tinubu during his Democracy Day speech on Wednesday assured Labour that an executive bill on the new national minimum wage for workers would soon be transmitted to the National Assembly for passage.
However, Soludo said at the best of estimates, the Federal Government revenue won’t exceed ₦17 trillion this year.
“If you share it to all Nigerians, it comes to ₦6,160 per person, per month, per capita. If you take even the total ₦28. 7 trillion (budget) and share, it will come down to ₦10,000 per capita,” he said.
He argued that the private sector employs a huge percentage of the total workforce in the country and not all of them can pay the ₦62,000 proposed by the Federal Government.
Soludo said he spoke with nine entrepreneurs in his state and none of them could pay the proposed amount by Labour.
He said, “The minimum wage thing, everybody is right. The worker is right to say, ‘What am I getting?’ Nobody is asking what does a worker do? We are not asking that question yet. All we are saying is: ‘How much does he need?’ He (the worker) is right, and for me, even if we pay N1 million, it’s not enough.
“But on the other hand, you have to come back to reality; talking about these MSMEs, the schools, churches, so on and so forth. You will have to pay your own driver. We are all in it. Whatever they agree, we will muddle through but may be after one year, we will need to meet to discuss the consequences.”
“I pity the President because it will all be on his head if the consequences come down, whatever it is, if whatever is negotiated is unsustainable or payable or whatever. Months to come, who will bear the responsibility? Not me.”
