Governor Yahaya Bello has been called out over his refusal to implement the new minimum wage for civil servants in Kogi state, three years after it was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Bello is aspiring to become President of Nigeria in 2023.
Social critic, Usman Austin Okai asked Bello to pay the state workforce their full salaries in February 2022.
Okai also asked Bello to pay the minimum wage he promised rather than contemplating otherwise.
There were reports that the Kogi government planned to pay a percentage salary in February without the approved minimum wage.
Reacting, Okai said there will be no justification for paying the state workers percentage salaries as it is being done at the local level in the last six years.
He urged the state workforce to resist this impending anomaly, saying if allowed, will become a norm for the rest of the two years of Bello’s administration.
”Two years after the approval of national minimum wage, Kogi had enjoyed it on a promissory note, after it was painstakingly approved and now being reneged.”
Okai expressed worry about the position of workers union in the state, stating their lukewarm attitudes as dangerous to the welfare of Kogi workers welfare.
