UNDERSTANDING THE APC'S COMMITTEE REPORT FOR TRUE FEDERALISM : WITH FOCUS ON MINIMUM WAGE

UNDERSTANDING THE APC'S COMMITTEE REPORT FOR TRUE FEDERALISM : WITH FOCUS ON MINIMUM WAGE 

                           By:
Nurudeen Dauda
        February 14, 2018
nurudeendauda24@gmail.com
nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com
nurudeendauda.blogspot.com

Permit me to say that, restructuring Is not an easy thing even if one believes In It. In my estimation, It will require an average of between 2 to 3 years for its to be a reality . Restructuring can never be done by just "Executive Fiat". For its to happen the constitution must be amended. Section 9 sub section (2) of the 1999 constitution as amended states that for its to be altered there must be two-thirds majority votes in the Senate (which is 72 out of 109 senators ), for the House of Reps 240 of the 360 members and 24 States Houses of Assembly plus Abuja out of the 36 States plus Abuja.

The APC's 23-man committee which held 12 zonal public consultations before submitting its recommendation on the 25th of January, 2018, came up with so many recommendations. On Minimum Wage Legislation: The committee recommended that each state should be free to decide on its level of remuneration based on its resources and productivity. Presently we have a National Minimum Wage Act with which all the state governments are expected to implement .

The argument by the proponents of states Minimum Wage rather than the present National Minimum Wage is that we operate a federal constitution or system of government which recognizes that, there is economic differences among its federating units. Some states are economically strong while others are not. More so, Fedaralism as a system of government does not enforce things that do not suit its federating units. The system best suits a country with ethnic, religious, state resources and economic differences.

The idea is that nothing should be enforced on states or federating units without regards to their peculiarities or economic strengths . Their major talking point is that all fingers are not equal. Some states get 13% derivation while others do not. Some states have functional industries with huge commercial and marketing activitiess . Some states have high Internally Generated Revenue(IGR), high rate of economic activities and seaport while others do not.

In summary, the report is advocating for decentralized salary structure which is a feature of federal system of government rather than the present centralized structure which is a feature of unitary system of government. This means that if a state like Lagos due to its financial strength can afford N100,000 as its minimum wage so be it. On the other hand, if Jigawa state due to its low financial strength can only afford N30,000 so be it.

However, In my view, the committee should have also looked at the issue of the salaries of political office holders. In my suggestion, we should desist from having a uniform salaries of the political office holders. The salaries of political office holders should be determined by the economic strengths of the state governments rather than the present centralized or uniform structure. Presently RMAFC is the body charge with the responsibility of the determination of the salary of political office holders all over the country. 

As at now, Revenue Mobilazation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) determines the remuneration appropriate to political office holders, including the President, Vice-President, Governors, Deputy Governors, Ministers, Commissioners, Special Advisers, and Legislators etc.

Let also decentralized the work of RMAFC. 

May God bless Nigeria!

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