President Buhari And 36 Governors Meet In Aso Rock (Photos)

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday met behind closed doors with the 36 states governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The meeting, which started around 12.40p.m, was held at the Council Chamber.

The governors were in Abuja for the extended National Economic Council (NEC) meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Buhari,
had on Nov.19, held similar meeting with representatives of Nigerian
Governors Forum at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where the same issue
of national minimum wage was deliberated upon.

Representatives of
the Governors forum, who met with the president over the issue then,
included governors of Zamfara, Lagos, Kaduna and Enugu, while the
Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige was also in attendance.

The
Amal Pepple Tripartite Committee on the Review of National Minimum
Wage, had on Nov. 6, submitted its report to President Buhari where it
recommended N30,000 as the new national minimum wage.

While
receiving the report, the president expressed his commitment to ensuring
the implementation of a new national minimum wage and pledged to
transmit an Executive Bill (on National Minimum Wage) to the National
Assembly for its passage within the shortest possible time.

However,
the 36 state governors had since expressed reservation over the
proposed N30,000 new minimum wage by the Amal Pepple committee, saying
the state governments were not in a stable financial position to pay the
new minimum wage.

The Chairman of the Governors’ forum and
Governor of Zamfara, Alhaji Abdul’aziz Yari, had on Nov. 15, told
newsmen at the end of an emergency meeting of the governors in Abuja
that payment of N30, 000 wage was not practicable.

The meeting with the President was still in progress at the time of filing this report.