The former governor of Kaduna state, Balarabe Musa, has urged the federal government to protect Nigerian workers by punishing employers of labour who fail to implement the N30,000 new minimum wage.
In a chat with Daily Independent, the former governor, who lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for assenting to the new wage, asserted that employers who refuse to pay the new amount should not be allowed to get away with it.
However, it pointed out that due to the delay in implementing the new wage, inflation has now made the amount too small to take care of the living conditions of average workers.
He said: “Let us praise government for, at least, listening and doing what is right on the new minimum wage; but they should also know that having delayed the implementation for so long, inflation has made the N30,000 monthly salaries too small to take care of the living conditions of the average worker.
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“There is still a problem. Now that it has been implemented, the president should ensure that no employer who refuses to pay the new minimum wage must get away with it.
“Because if we just implement the minimum wage and fail to protect the workers by enforcing it, many employers will stop paying it. “So, the federal government must make sure anybody who refuses to pay the minimum wage must not get away with it.”
The development means that the signed new minimum wage bill is now a law, which is an upward review of the salaries of all Nigerian civil servants.
The president also said that the law affects all Nigerian workers.