Only five governors were presents at the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) meeting converged to discuss the new minimum wage on Tuesday.
Last week, the Nigerian Government agreed to the N30,000 minimum wage as proposed by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) after a lengthy back-and-forth between the government and the labour unions.
However, at the NGF meeting slated to discuss the new wage, only five out of 35 state governors were present.
Consequently, the meeting was cancelled as the number present did now meet the required quorum.
The governors, who were in attendance were those of Jigawa, Bauchi, Zamfara, Adamawa and Zamfara States. Four states — Enugu, Katsina, Nasarawa and Kaduna were, however, represented by their deputies.
According to a source at the NGF Secretariat most of the governors who did not attend blamed their absence on their busy campaign schedules in their states.
Abdulaziz Yari, Chairman of the NGF and Zamfara State Governor, directed a staffer of the secretariat to inform journalists about the cancellation of the meeting.
None of the governors who came for the meeting was willing to speak to journalists.
At the last meeting of the NGF, the 36 states governors rejected the N30,000 new minimum wage being proposed by the tripartite committee.
Instead, the governors insisted on paying N22,500, blaming their inability to pay N30,000 on the harsh economic situation in most of the states.
Meanwhile, Yari and other APC governors who came for the NGF meeting went into a closed-door discussion with Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister for Transportation and Director-General of the Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation.
Although details of the meeting were not disclosed, THISDAY reported that issues relating to the APC’s strategies for the forthcoming elections were discussed.
