Yemi Adaramodu, spokesperson of the senate, says the national assembly is not considering a clause that would enforce the seizure of state and LG funds who fail to pay the proposed minimum wage.
President Bola Tinubu has yet to send a bill to the national assembly for a new minimum wage.
However, there are reports that the national assembly is proposing to the federal government to insert the clause in the new minimum wage bill.
In a statement on Saturday, Adaramodu said there is no such plan.
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He said no member of the national assembly knows the content of the bill because they have yet to receive it.
“Mr President in his national broadcast on Democracy Day only informed Nigerians that he would soon send the new minimum wage bill to us,” he said.
“No one among us, not even the senate president knows the content of the bill. How can we take a position on a document that we haven’t even sighted?
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“During my interface with some selected journalists, as part of activities to mark the one year anniversary of the 10th national assembly, I did not at any point state that the allocations belonging to states and local governments will be seized.
“Nigeria is a federation, with sub-national governments that are autonomous.
“We are still awaiting the executive bill and once we have it, it will go through all legislative stages and once this is done and it receives presidential assent, it becomes law, and it is the law that can specify sanction, not the national assembly.”
In his Democracy Day speech, Tinubu said an executive bill on the new minimum wage will soon be sent to the national assembly.
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At the last meeting of the tripartite committee on minimum wage, organised labour had rejected the N62,000 proposal by the government and insisted on N250,000 as the living wage for an average Nigerian worker.
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