A video emerged on Thursday, April 25, 2024, which showed the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu claiming to have increased workers’ minimum wage to N70,000.
The clip which emerged from an X user @_callmebekky was posted with caption; “Governor Sanwo-Olu has increased the minimum wage from 35,000 Naira to 70,000 Naira.”
The post was viewed over 157,000 times and so far has 1300 likes and 544 retweets.
This was reposted by @NageriaStories and garnered 337,000 views, nearly 7000 likes and 1700 retweets.
The post was also on a popular online media platform @Yabaleftonline where it was viewed over 34000 times and liked over 600 with over 100 retweets.
This has generated a lot of confusion on social media and especially among Nigerians with many doubting the governor’s claim in the video as the federal government and the organized labor unions are yet to agree on any raise in the minimum wage.
Minimum Wage in Nigeria
Minimum wage is the minimum amount of remuneration that an employer is required to pay wage earners for the work performed during a given period, which cannot be reduced by collective agreement or an individual contract.
In Nigeria, the minimum monthly wage stands at 30,000 naira (except in Lagos which stands at N35,000). Generally, the wage rate is determined by the applicable collective agreement or the agreement between the worker and the employer. There is no preset criterion to determine the minimum wage. The national minimum wage rate is applicable to every worker except part-time workers
There is currently agitation for an increase in the minimum wage as it is set to expire in April. Already, a federal panel consisting of state governors, trade unionists and private sector and labor leaders is reviewing how much the minimum wage should increase.
While the new minimum wage is yet to be implemented, the Federal government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in October 2023 approved a N35,000 Provisional Wage otherwise called a wage award for all workers. The president also urged the 36 state governors to implement the same in their various states and reiterated this on March 12, 2023, during the flagged-off of the Food Security and Agricultural Mechanization Programmed in Niger State.
Verification
A report by The PUNCH on Thursday corroborated the statement made by Governor Sanwo-Olu in the clip being circulated online.
This is as he revealed the state government will soon roll out a new minimum wage scheme.
The governor stated that those who are currently earning a minimum wage of N35,000 or more now take home a salary of N70,000 or above since the beginning of the year.
“The civil servant and all public officers in Lagos know that since January, we have continued to pay the wage allowance of a minimum of N35,000 over and above what they were earning before.
“What this means is that people that are earning a minimum of N35,000 or more before are now earning over N70,000. That is what they have been enjoying since January.
“So it is important for people to know that we make these things very clear that this government has doubled up to ensure that at this difficult time, it has not left the citizens on their own,” Sanwo-Olu said at a state function on Thursday.”
A Senior Fireman at Lagos State Fire Service, Ibrahim Abdulazeez confirmed the monthly payment of N35,000 wage award to this reporter. Also, Saheed Bimbola who worked with the Lagos Teaching Service Commission confirmed the payment.
From the above, it can be deduced certainly that the minimum wage in Lagos state still stands at N35,000. However, with the additional N35,000 wage award, the minimum take-home salary for a government worker in Lagos state is N70,000.
This aligns with MyAIFactChecker (an AI tool that allows people to verify news within seconds) response after being asked if Sanwo-Olu is paying N70,000 as minimum wage for Lagos workers.
The response was; “No, the Lagos government is not currently paying seventy thousand naira to workers. The Governor of Lagos State confirmed that the administration has been paying an additional N35,000 wage allowance to workers in the state since the beginning of the year.”
Verdict:
The claim that Sanw0-Olu has increased Lagos workers’ minimum wage to N70,000 is not true, it is meant to create confusion. However, the Lagos state government is indeed paying N35,000 additional wage to workers (which can be stopped at any time).