20 Governors Face Backlash Over Delay in Implementing ₦70,000 Minimum Wage

About 20 states have failed to enact the new N70,000 minimum salary for primary school teachers and local government employees says Alhaji Haruna Kankara, national president of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, who announced on Sunday.

Yobe, Gombe, Zamfara, Kaduna, Imo, Ebonyi, Cross River, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Borno, and eleven more states are among them.

The NULGE head made this revelation in response to enquiries from The Intercept regarding the country’s primary school teachers and LG employees and the introduction of the new minimum wage.

About 20 states started implementing the new wage law after the Minimum Wage Act, 2024 was signed into law.

The states were: Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Jigawa, Gombe, Ogun, Kebbi, Ondo, Kogi, Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa, Niger, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, and others.

Following months of talks with labour organisations, President Bola Tinubu signed the N70,000 minimum wage bill into law on July 29, 2024.

In light of the nation’s economic difficulties, the new minimum wage was increased by 133% from N30,000 to N70,000 per month.

Giving an update on the implementation of the law, Kankara said, “We truly have the challenge of so many states, like about 20 that have not started implementing the new minimum wage.

“We have states like Sokoto, Yobe, Gombe, Zamfara, Kaduna, Imo, Ebonyi, Borno, Cross Rivers, FCT Abuja, among others. Some have started paying the state workers leaving out the local government workers and primary school teachers but we have continued to engage and plead with them to do the needful for these workers.

“Some of them promised but failed to fulfil their promise but we are hoping that just very soon all of these would have been resolved.”

On the implementation of the LG autonomy, the NULGE leader explained that the Central Bank has yet to communicate with the councils on the opening of bank accounts.

“What the union has always demanded is for the Central Bank of Nigeria to issue a circular for the local government to open an account with them but up till now, that is yet to be done,” he disclosed.

The Kwara State President of NULGE, Seun Oyinlade, said the state government started paying the N70,000 to the state workers in October 2024.

However, he lamented that the heavy taxation imposed by the government on the workers has reduced the workers’ take home pay.

“The implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage approved for the workers in the state has been implemented for local government staff since October 2024, but the heavy taxes imposed by the state government have greatly affected the take-home pay of our members.

“When the state branch of the Nigeria Labour Congress appealed to the state government to reduce the taxes, the government only gave the workers three months of tax relief, which has ended in December 2024 but the government has started deducting the tax since January,” he added.

Muritala Olayinka, the state chairman of the NLC, affirmed that the state government has begun paying the increased salary to all worker categories in the state.

He noted, “The Kwara State government started the implementation of the new minimum wage to all categories of workers since October last year and all workers have started enjoying the new salary.

“Although the workers complained of high taxation which the NLC made an appeal for one year tax holiday but the government only approved three months tax holiday for the workers which had ended in December.

“The congress had since written a letter to the governor for the extension of the tax holiday. We are waiting for a reply from the government, and we hope it is going to be positive.”

A new minimum salary for teachers and local government employees in the state has been introduced, according to a Sokoto teacher.

According to Abdullahi Umar, since January, all state employees have been enjoying their increased pay.

“We have been paid the new minimum wage with effect from January. Although the implementation was delayed due to FAAC allocation. We received the January and February payment a few weeks ago,” he said.

An LG worker, Usman Abdullah, corroborated Umar’s statement, stating that N50,000 was added to their old salary.

“They added N50,000 naira to our salary, but the last minimum wage of N30,000 naira was not implemented at the local government level. This administration added N 50,000 to our old salary as our minimum wage benefit,’’ he pointed out.

Meanwhile, some teachers have not yet received the N30,000 2019 minimum salary, according to statistics gathered from the National Union of Teachers.

According to the statistics, the N30,000 minimum salary for teachers has not yet been implemented in Zamfara, Yobe, Taraba, Sokoto, Niger, Kogi, Kaduna, Imo, Gombe, Cross River, Borno, Benue, Adamawa, and Abia State.

A few LG educators requested that the federal government step in.

A teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of victimization, said, “For us in Yobe, we haven’t even benefited from the previous minimum wage, how can someone who didn’t even enjoy N30,000 talk of enjoying the N70,000. We appeal to the president to please intervene.”

A teacher in the Bwari Area Council of the FCT lamented the neglect of the LG workers and teachers by the FCT Administration.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said, “In FCT, not only teachers are involved but all other categories of LG workers. Last month, we went on strike, and we resumed after a few days due to negotiation. It is so unfair the way LG workers are being treated in this country.’’

Teachers in the FCT’s public elementary schools went on strike for the fourth time in four months on March 24, 2025.

In February of this year and again in December of last year, the instructors abstained from teaching.

They were demonstrating against the chairmen of the six area councils for failing to implement the N70,000 national minimum wage.

Most of the schools in the six local municipalities had their second-term exams interrupted by the most recent strike.

In a statement following an emergency State Wing Standing Committee meeting, the teachers announced the strike. They emphasised that the implementation of the new minimum wage for primary school teachers in February 2025 was one of the key agreements made during earlier negotiations and that this served as the rationale for calling off the previous strike.

The union expressed disappointment over the payment process, stating, “The payment of February salary by the councils without recourse to the union and the New Minimum Wage is disturbing, disheartening, and lacking in sympathy for the plight of primary school Teachers in the FCT.”

The SWSC questioned the ongoing financial burden on teachers, asking, “Why the continuous impoverishing of the impoverished? Why impose continuous hardship and suffering on the teachers and their families? Enough Is Enough!”

The communique outlined several demands, including immediate implementation of the national minimum wage in February salaries, with the payment of the differential between the old and new wages.

“The payment of March salaries in accordance with the new minimum wage; the immediate implementation of various allowances, including a 40 percent peculiar allowance and additional salary increases; and the disbursement of six months’ worth of minimum wage arrears as previously agreed.”

On Sunday, calls to the phones of NUT Secretary General Mike Ene and National President Titus Amba revealed that they were off, making it impossible to contact them for comment.

Mohammed Abubakar, the secretary-general of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, told The Intercept that state finance commissioners were impeding the direct payment of allocations to the councils, which had an impact on the LGAs’ financial situation.