Workers all over the world have every right to agitate for improved welfare. These inalienable rights are fully recognized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) Constitution, which recognizes the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively for better working conditions and welfare.

Not only that, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): Article 23 of the UDHR (1948), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR): Article 7 of the ICESCR (1966), as well as Nigeria’s Labour Act (2004), all recognize the right of workers to form and join trade unions, bargain collectively, and strike.

In Nasarawa State, the administration of His Excellency, Governor Abdullahi Sule has continuously recognized the right of workers to agitate for better welfare, in line with the collective aspirations of the entire population of the state.

Recently, there has been ongoing agitation by workers across the country and Nasarawa State in particular regarding the implementation of the new national minimum wage. Recall that a new national minimum wage of N70, 000 came into force through the National Minimum Wage Amendment Act 2024.

As a result of the ongoing agitation, it has become necessary to refreshen the minds of workers in Nasarawa State, as well as the general public on the various interventions made by the present administration under the leadership of His Excellency, Governor Sule towards improving the welfare of workers in the state.

This has become necessary following concerted efforts to misinform the public, especially on the wake of the recent strike embarked upon by civil servants in the state as part of the collective agitation for the implementation of the new minimum wage.

First and foremost, Governor Sule was elected into office from a background of the organized private sector where he rose to the enviable position of the Group Managing Director of the Dangote Sugar company. He came into office, therefore, with the knowledge and experience to handle issues relating to the welfare of workers.

It is, therefore, not surprising that for Governor Sule, the welfare of workers is the top priority, particularly that his administration recognizes the critical role workers are playing towards actualizing the development agenda of the state government.

When he came onboard in May 2019, His Excellency met a situation where civil servants both at the state and local government levels were being paid monthly salary in percentages. He quickly set in motion mechanism to ensure that workers in Nasarawa State received one hundred percent of their monthly wages. It’s on record that since he became governor of Nasarawa State, civil servants have continued to enjoy full and regular payment of salaries.

Governor Sule also implemented the then new minimum wage when former president Muhammadu Buhari approved thirty thousand as national minimum wage. When he was inaugurated into office on May 29, 2019, he fulfilled this promise by implementing the N30, 000 minimum wage.

He met an outstanding arrears owed to the workers as their outstanding August 2016 salary amounting to seven hundred and twenty-six million naira, which was paid to civil servants in three installments starting from January 2021 to March 2021. This was in fulfillment of the promise the Governor made to members of the organized labour as part of the efforts of his administration to enhance their welfare.

In fulfilment of his promise to implement promotions for workers in the state, Governor Sule approved and implemented promotions for civil servants in batches, from 2011 to 2018 and from 2019 to 2023, with Nasarawa State now among the few states in the country that are up to date in the implementation of promotions of workers.

The Governor has done more for workers in Nasarawa State as part of the determination of his administration to enhance and improve on the welfare of workers. He approved for the employment of over 8000 additional workers, absorped 1000 casual workers into the state civil service with permanent employment status, as well as approved the allocation of the residential quarters occupied by civil servants on owner-occupier basis, with another 300 housing units in Luvu (Masaka) ready to be allocated to workers through mortgage financing.

He has also cleared backlog of outstanding gratuities for retired workers in the state from 1996 to 2011, ensuring that retirees receive one hundred percent of their gratuities without recourse to favoritism or selective treatment.

It is on record that, at one point, state and local governments pensioners are not only paid a paltry sum of their gratuities, their pensions are paid in percentages, a near financial starvation of their entitlements, partly responsible for many frustrations, penury, death as retirees could not settle their daily bills.

Governor Sule came in and cleared the gratuity of retired civil servants, which had not been paid in the last 26 years.

Obviously, some civil servants in Nasarawa State are quick to forget all these well intentioned interventions and much more that came their way, particularly now that their focus is on the implementation of the 70, 000 national minimum wage.

It’s pertinent to state, while it is their right to agitate for the implementation of this new wage, they should also endeavour to appreciate that Governor Abdullahi Sule has earned the name the labour union gave him as the ‘Most Labour Friendly Governor’. They must endeavor not to throw away the baby and the bathe water as they jostled for the new wage.

It’s on record that, already, Governor Sule has approved N70, 500 as the new minimum wage in the state and has demonstrated his willingness to implement a consequential adjustment for other category of workers that is within the resources available to the state.

It therefore became necessary to call on the leaders of the organized labour in Nasarawa State to rethink and consider all the laudable initiatives the present government executed purposely to enhance the welfare of workers in the state.

Since the commencement of the debate on the new national minimum wage, Governor Sule has been forthright in dealing with members of the organized labour, always carrying them alone in all the meetings where the new wage would be discussed.

At one of such meetings, where the Governor made known his intention to implement the new minimum wage, it was the organized labour in the state that intervened and urged him not to implement the new minimum wage. They instead asked him to implement their promotions, which he did.

It is therefore unfair to Governor Sule for any worker to now turn around and accuse him of failing to implement the new minimum wage. The new minimum wage is a law, and His Excellency, Governor Abdullahi Sule, has always been on the side of the law.

As it stands presently, Governor Sule has approved N70, 500 as the new minimum wage and his administration is working out a template that is within the financial capacity of the state to implement, with workers expected to receive the new wage alongside their December salary.

According to Nasarawa State Deputy Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Akabe, who doubles as the Chairman of the National Minimum Wage Implementation Committee, Governor Sule has already directed the Commissioner of Finance, as well as the Accountant General to facilitate the payment of the new wage bill by December, 2024.

It is also worthy of note that the minimum wage is the lowest amount of money that an employer is legally required to pay an employee for their work. It is a wage floor, below which employers are not allowed to pay their employees. It therefore means that for those who already receive more than the minimum wage as salary such would only benefit in percentages.

No government, including Nasarawa State would pay workers salary based on the rate of inflation in the country or even the number of worker’s dependents as suggested in a social media post alleging injustice or any similar negative connotation essentially because the state government is implementing consequential adjustment after approving the N70, 500 wage.

Indeed, workers in Nasarawa State should, therefore, learn to appreciate Governor Sule for all that his administration is doing and would do to better the lives of not only civil servants but the entire population of the state.

Abare is the Special Assistant on Media to the Governor of Nasarawa State