The Adamawa chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called for the review of the minimum wage to a living wage in line with current economic realities in the state and across the country.

The branch chairman, Emmanuel Fashe, made the call in his speech at the celebration of 2026 Workers’ Day in Yola.

This year’s theme for the celebration is “Insecurity, Poverty: Bane of Decent Work”.

Mr Fashe said the theme was not chosen by accident but deliberately to suit contemporary situations in the country.

“With rising costs of food, transport, and housing, we request the reconvening of the state minimum wage committee to negotiate a living wage that matches today’s economy,” he said.

Mr Fashe appreciated the efforts of the Adamawa government in making timely payments of salaries and gratuities, as well as the recent employment of 5,000 people and being the first state to implement the N70,000 minimum wage.

In his remarks, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri assured his administration’s commitment to continue to do everything possible to improve the welfare of workers in the state.

Mr Fintiri, who was represented by his deputy, Kaletapwa Farauta, assured that the issue of a living wage, whenever the federal government agreed upon it, would lead in the implementation.

“I assure you that whenever the “living wage” is nationally agreed upon, Adamawa would always lead the way in the implementation, as usual.

“We have so far employed over 7000 workers into the core civil service; plans have been concluded to release the list of over 5000 teachers recruited to man our classrooms,” he said.

“We are concluding the plan for the recruitment of new staff to power our local government system.

“The right to industrial organisation is a constitutional one. I therefore call on all employers of labour in the state to not only protect those rights but also guarantee them,” he said. 

(NAN)