Organised labour has tasked the Senate to expedite action on the Minimum Wage bill before it, just as the House of Representatives had given utmost priority to the bill.
General Secretary of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigera (NUTGTWN), who is also a governorship candidate for Labour Party in Kwara State, Issa Aremu, charged Senate President Bukola Saraki to emulate the legacy of his late father, Senator Olusola Saraki, on passage of the new National Minimum Wage Bill.
Aremu, speaking in Ilorin, recalled that the late Saraki, as the Senate leader, presided over the Senate committee that saw the emergence of the first national minimum wage in 1981 under President Shehu Shagari.
The labour leader who described the late Saraki as “a wonderful symbol of democracy,’’ who showed concern for the plight of workers urged the Senate President to also write his name in gold by reconvening the Senate to pass the new bill.
“The Senate President Bukola Saraki should be on duty regarding this all important Bill. I remind him to emulate his father.
“He should resume his work to pass the Bill to concur with the House of Representatives,’’ he said.
Aremu said that the Senate President must see the Bill as a total commitment and therefore, suspend partisanship to resume his statesmanship work in the National Assembly.
“He must declare his position on the N27,000 and N30,000 recommendations.
“He must act fast like the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, did so that we can make it a reality and the President will sign the Bill into law’’ he said.
