Organised labour yesterday drew the battle line with the Federal Government and threatened to mobilise against the conduct of the April general election except the new wage bill is signed into law.

The unionists vowed that no governorship election would hold in any state except the governors showed commitment to paying the new wage awaiting passage at the House of Representatives after the Senate had passed it last week.

The labour leaders went into a marathon session yesterday to deliberate on the minimum wage against the background of the claim by their erstwhile leader and now Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, that they were going to have problems with the state governors because the most of the governors were against the new wage.

Oshiomhole had advised the labour to prevail on the Federal Government to review the revenue allocation formula to favour the states and local governments so that they could have more money to meet their obligations, adding that most of the governors would like to pay but didn’t have the means. However, labour leaders discountenanced the advice that they should plead with the Federal Government to review the revenue allocation formula but would tackle the federal and state governments headlong because the issue touched on law and not sentiment.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), President Abdulwaheed Omar, quickly dismissed the position of Oshiomhole as a mere distraction, warning that it would be a total showdown with government should the National Assembly fail to pass the bill before the end of its tenure, adding that congress would not allow itself to be arm twisted.

Omar said: “That would be a distraction and we have come a long way in the battle. Therefore, all the parties agreed we are not going to listen to any further excuses. It would be uncharitable for them to be giving us conditions after the whole agreement has been sealed and the law was already being processed.”
The delegates to the 10th quadrennial conference of the NLC, holding in Abuja, then resolved at their session yesterday that there would be no elections in the states without payment of the new wage noting that the workers patience had been tested enough by the state governments.

They expressed their frustration with the state governments over the matter and took a position not to allow elections in those states if the governors failed to pay because it would amount to disobeying the law.
The congress president insisted that “the ultimatum we are giving to the government is that the new minimum wage bill must be assented to by the president before the dissolution of the present National Assembly. Failure of both the executive and the National Assembly to collaborate and ensure implementation of the wage bill would put the April elections in jeopardy as workers would ensure the elections do not hold.”

Oshiomhole had explained that the Federal Government allocated to itself 47. 3 per cent of the total federal revenue, leaving the states and local governments with only 43.7 per cent and in the process the Federal Government had more money to throw into projects that had no value to the people rather than giving it to states and local governments, which has responsibility to the people at the grass root.

It was on the basis of this that he called on labour to rise up to the challenge and engage the Federal Government on the revenue allocation formula.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/mar/03/national-03-03-2011-001.htm