The newspaper review for Friday, November 16, focuses on the continued crisis surrounding the N30,000 minimum wage demand in which the governors, under the aegis of Nigerian Governors' Forum (NGF), and the organised workers' force across the country are fiercely locked in a ceaseless media assault.
Recall that Legit.ng's Thursday, November 15, review reported how the governors, in their meeting held in Abuja on Wednesday, November 14, resolved to assent to the demand of the labour on the condition that there would be an immediate downsizing of the workforce across the federation.
Governor AbdulAziz Yari-led NGF had claimed that the payment of N30,000 minimum wage would drag most states into bankruptcy.
However, in a reaction trailing the statement credited to the governors, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), led by Ayuba Wabba, has made powerful rejoinder, threatening to vote those against the minimum wage demand out of political offices in 2019.
In its front page, The Nation newspaper reported that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has dared governors on the N30,000 wage demand. This threat followed the proclamation made by the governors to downsize the labour force if the wage demand would be materialised.
The newspaper reports that Ayuba Wabba, the NLC national president, described the governors' proclamation as an empty threat, adding that the union in its struggle is not a stranger to threats and cannot be intimidated.
Wabba, according to the paper, expressed high disappointment in the governors' position, urging workers to vote out political office holders who do not give workers' welfare a deserved priority.
The newspaper also reported that the national chairman of All Progressive Congress (APC), who has also served as the national chairman of NLC, Adams Oshiomhole, called for mutual understanding. In the report, Oshiomhole described minimum wage as workers' right, not "an act of kindness."
Newspaper review for Friday, November 16: The Nation newspaper reports that the NLC has dared the Governors' Forum on its proclamation to sack workers. Photo credit: Legit.ng
In its own report, Vanguard states the organised labour described the threats made by the governors as an invitation to anarchy. It lamented that in the wake of higher living standard and depreciation of naira at parallel market, government was expected to be considerate and modest in its position.
The newspaper also reports that labour bodies described the threat to sack workers across the country as a joke, calling the governors to the rising level of unemployment across the country.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC), as reported by Vanguard, called on the governors to reduce the cost of governance and save money to pay the salaries of their workers whose on their back they rode to power.
Newspaper review for Friday, November 16: Vanguard newspaper reports that the NLC has decribed the sack threat issued by NGF as a display of anarchy. Photo credit: Legit.ng
Coming in with the title "Labour in dilemma over fresh minimum wage strike," The Guardian newspaper reports that the move for a new industrial strike action across the federation by the NLC may be met with outright rejection as the employers of labour seem to be reluctant in their support for fresh boycott move.
The newspaper reports that the NLC may lose the supports of workers if it continues with its plan to shutdown the nation again.
And notably like other newspapers, The Guardian also reports the bribery allegation that has locked the Senate president, Bukola Saraki and APC chairman, Adams Oshiohmole into a verbal onslaught recently.
Newspaper review for Friday, November 16: Guardian reports that the organised laboour is in dilemma whether to go on strike or not, following the NGF's statement. Photo credit: Legit.ng
This Days newspaper digresses from the ongoing NLC-governors disagreement. In its front page that bears the title "Amaech: Atiku not a match for Buhari," the minister of transportation and former governor of Rivers state, Rotimi Amaechi, was reported to have laughed off the political strength of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)'s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, for the 2019 presidential election.
Atiku and Buhari, who are the leading candidates in the race, would be seeking Nigerians' endorsement for the Aso Rock in 2019. But during a live television programme which he was a guest, Amaechi, who is also the director-general for Buhari campaign organisation, debased Atiku's popularity.
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