About 20 state governors across Nigeria have come under fire over the non-payment of the new N70,000 minimum wage to local government workers and primary school teachers, even though the law was signed nearly a year ago.
President Bola Tinubu approved the new wage in July 2024 to ease the pressure of rising prices on workers.
The increase more than doubled the previous N30,000 minimum wage, but full implementation remains a challenge in many parts of the country, Punch reports.
The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) confirmed that states like Yobe, Gombe, Zamfara, Kaduna, Imo, Ebonyi, Cross River, Borno, and the Federal Capital Territory are among those that have yet to start paying the updated wage to local government workers and teachers.
Others include Sokoto, Taraba, Niger, Kogi, Benue, Abia, Adamawa, and Anambra.
In some of these states, the government began paying the new wage to state workers while leaving out local government and education sector staff.
In the FCT, the issue has triggered several strikes by public primary school teachers.
Between December 2024 and March 2025, teachers walked out of classrooms four times over the failure of the area councils to implement the new wage.
Their most recent protest disrupted second-term exams in many schools.
According to the teachers, an earlier agreement had stated that the wage would be paid starting from February, but that promise was broken.
A teacher in Bwari Area Council, speaking anonymously, said all categories of LG workers in the FCT were being neglected.
The teacher recalled that they went on strike recently and only returned after short negotiations, but the councils still failed to include the new wage in the February salaries.
In Sokoto, some teachers said they began receiving the new salary in January 2025.
However, they admitted that this came after delays caused by limited funds from the federal allocation.
One local government staff member explained that N50,000 was added to their old salary, but they never received the previous N30,000 minimum wage that was approved in 2019.
The problem goes beyond the new wage. Data from the Nigeria Union of Teachers showed that some states have yet to even implement the 2019 wage increase of N30,000 for teachers.
These states include Zamfara, Yobe, Taraba, Sokoto, Niger, Kogi, Kaduna, Imo, Gombe, Cross River, Borno, Benue, Adamawa, and Abia.
Teachers in these states are now asking the Federal Government to step in, as they feel forgotten and underpaid.
In Kwara State, the new wage has been in effect for state and LG workers since October 2024.
But workers there say heavy taxes have eaten into their new earnings.
The state initially granted a three-month tax break, which ended in December.
Since January, deductions have resumed, and unions are now pushing for an extension of the tax relief to ease the burden.
