Confab rejects N40,000 minimum wage

Bans MDAs from receiving application fees from job seekersBy JOSEPH ERUNKE & LEVINUS NWABUGHIOGUDELEGATES, yesterday, unanimously rejected an amended recommendation of the Mrs. Ebele Okeke-led Committee on Public Service to jerk up the N18,000 minimum wage to N40,000, saying that it was unnecessary and uncalled for to review workers’ salaries now.The development came just as it recommended a complete ban on government ministries, departments and agencies from collecting application fees from applicants seeking employments into such organisations.Following the recent Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment exercise where many job seeks died and others were injured in a stampede, the conference adopted a proposal for the setting up of recruitment centres in the states of the federation to look into issues of employment.It also accepted a motion calling for the change of Federal Character Commission, FCC, to what it called Federal Character and Equal Opportunities Commission, FCEOC, in both federal and states of the federation. Dr Nurudeen Lemu, a delegate on the platform of Muslim Leaders, spearheaded the motion on behalf of 33 other delegates, which sailed through after heated debates.The conference enjoined the National Assembly to domesticate the International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention and adopted the committee’s recommendation that government at all levels should make public offices disabilities-friendly by providing special access facilities in line with international charters and treaties.…Fixes September as deadline for budget presentation to NASS, December 31 for passage DELEGATES, yesterday, fixed September, every year, as deadline for the presentation of the national budget to the National Assembly and December 31 for the passage of the budget into law.They also expunged the provision that empowers the president to fall back on the public coffers to spend 50 to 70 percentage of money in the previous year’s budget to keep the country running pending passage of the current budget. Attempts to retain it to avoid an economy shut down by some delegates woefully failed.These were some of the amendments made to the recommendations of the conference committee on Public Service which was adopted after exhaustive debate that lasted for two days. Delegates had argued that to achieve rapid development of the country, the executive and legislative arms of government whose responsibility it is to prepare and deliberate on the budget must take their duties seriously.