The Nigeria Labour Congress has advised governors who can’t pay the new N70,000 minimum wage to quit office.

The Gombe State Governor, Inuwa Yahaya, last week said his administration would not be able to pay the new national minimum wage of N70,000.

Yahaya, who chairs the Northern Governors’ Forum, spoke at a meeting with labour leaders, civil society organisations, and traders associations at the Government House in Gombe.

Reacting to the Gombe governor’s declaration, the Head of Public Relations of the NLC, Benson Upah advised him to resign.

“He should quit if he cannot pay. He took an oath of office to uphold the law and not to break it,” he said.

No official of the Trade Union Congress has responded to The PUNCH’s inquiries about the governor’s outburst.

Last week, President Bola Tinubu signed the new Minimum Wage Act into law.

The signing of the law came nearly two weeks after President Tinubu and the organised labour unions agreed on N70,000 as the new minimum wage.

On July 18, the Federal Government, organised labour and the private sector concluded months-long negotiations on the minimum wage when Tinubu haggled down labour’s N250,000/month demand to N70,000/month.

On July 15, the Federal Executive Council mandated the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning to prepare a bill to amend the 2024 Budget.

A week later, Tinubu wrote the Senate requesting it to amend the 2024 Appropriation Act and the 2023 Finance Act by increasing the budget by N6.2tn.

Tinubu’s letter was addressed to the Senate President and read at plenary.

The President said the move was pursuant to Section 58 (2) of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government allayed fears of non-compliance with the new minimum wage, saying the extensive negotiations and consensus-building undertaken from early February to July meant all the relevant stakeholders were involved.

PUNCH