As the minimum wage discussion is ongoing, the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) today declared that local councils cannot afford to pay the proposed N62, 000 as new minimum wage citing a meagre allocation coming from the Federation Account as a major factor responsible for their rejection.
National President of ALGON, Alh Aminu Muazu-Maifata explained in an interview with Journalists in Lafia that all the 774 Local Government Councils in the country get an allocation of a little above 18 per cent from the Federation Account monthly and hinged his argument on the gross inadequate of funds to pay the N62, 000 minimum wage.
It would be recalled that representatives of the Federal Government and the private sector at the tripartite committee for the negotiation of a new minimum wage had proposed N62,000, while the organised labour moved from N494,000 to N250,000.
According to Muazu-Maifata, even if the local government executives decided to set aside the entire monthly allocations for salaries, ALGON will still not have sources to implement the new minimum wage.
ALGON president declared that apart from payment of wages, they still have other responsibilities such as the provision of affordable healthcare, education, security, traditional institution, rural roads as well as youths and women empowerment among others to contend with.
The ALGON leader also made a case for amendment of the constitution to make the tenure of office of LGAs officials uniform across the country for smooth administration.,
Promising that the association would work with other stakeholders to ensure full implementation of the area councils autonomy as enshrined in the country’s constitution.
