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The Jigawa State Government has declared that it would not pay the N18,000 minimum wage because it was not captured in the state's 2011 budget.
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Gov. Sule Lamido, who disclosed this while addressing newsmen in Government House in Dutse,? said that the? N18,000 minimum wage was not provided for in the 2011 Appropriation Bill.
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?“The minimum wage was not captured in our 2011 budget and no provision for minimum wage there-in”
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?“We cannot source funds outside the budget to pay new salaries and if we do that, it will amount to illegality,” he said.
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Lamido said that the state workers were not wage earners, but stakeholders and partners that were ready to render services for the development of the state.
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?“We believe in our workers as dignified indigenes who are ever ready to offer selfless services for the progress of the state, hence they will not sell their services” he said.
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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the state chairman of NLC, Malam Suleman Kiyawa , announced last month that the state government had agreed in principle to pay? the minimum wage in compliance with the agreement reached during the national negotiation.?