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The Federal Government has urged Organised Labour to accept the new minimum wage proposal, considering the capacity and ability of the government and the private sector to pay.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, made the call when he received the new Director-General of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Mr Timothy Olawale, on a visit to his office on Friday in Abuja.

Ngige had a few days ago, while labour leaders were threatening to call out workers on a full strike over the minimum wage issue, announced that the Federal Government had offered N24, 000 to the workers.

But, the workers’ leaders countered, saying that N30, 000 was the amount agreed on by the tripartite-partner committee saddled with the responsibility.

The minister told the NECA DG that it was imperative for organised labour to accept the proposed figure instead of the N30, 000 in line with social dialogue and the overall interest of the nation.

He appealed to NECA to weigh its influence on the organisers labour to accede to the new wage offer mutually agreeable to all the social partners.

According to him, Nigeria cannot afford rounds of labour crisis in this country, so it is imperative for organised labour to accept the new national minimum wage figure.

“We need to arrive at a figure which the employers can afford to pay as an employee cannot fix a figure for the employer.

“Rather, it must be based on collective bargaining and mutual agreement by the tripartite partners.

“It is not a function of moving motions or voting at the National Tripartite Negotiation Committee to insist that the figure must be as the organised labour appears to make it look.

“There is, therefore, absolutely no need to heat up the polity,” he said.

He noted that the government’s proposed new wage was based on critical facts and indices incapable of causing disequilibrium in the economy or upturning the national social order.

The minister further charged the new NECA boss to exceed the impressive record of his predecessor, reminding him that he had “enormous task ahead of you’’.

“The need for the establishment of more NECA offices across the country cannot be over-emphasised so that more employers’ associations can register with you.

“This is in line with the focus of our labour administration as well as in tandem with the economic policies of the present administration.

“The numerous private sector employers who are informal need to be brought on board the formalized private sector employers’ body,’’ he said.

Ngige urged NECA to ensure that private sector employers who were its members and those not yet registered but were defaulting in payment of the existing national minimum wage of N18, 000 complied with the law.

He also commended the efforts of the immediate past D G of the association, Mr Olusegun Oshinowo, for contributing immensely to industrial peace and harmony in the private sector.

He lauded him for ensuring that Nigeria was brought back to the Governing Board of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s employer section.

Earlier, Oshinowo had said that his successor was the best man to take over the mantle of the leadership of the association.

He noted that since the formation of the group, a DG was for the first time sourced from the organisation.

Oshinowo commended the minister for his open-door policy in spite of opposing positions they had had on issues in the past.
On his part, Olawale, also lauded Ngige for the privilege of the visit and promised to live up to expectation. (NAN)

Former Anambra Governor, Mr Peter Obi says his choice as the running mate to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is to ennoble his people.

Obi said this on Friday in Enugu during a visit to the state governor, Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

It would be recalled that the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on Oct. 12 announced Obi as his running mate, a situation that generated mixed reactions from party chieftains in the area.

Governors of the PDP and party chieftains from the zone subsequently met and expressed their dissatisfaction that they were not consulted prior to the announcement.

However, Obi, who said he was in the state to seek the support of Ugwuanyi, pointed out that his candidacy, was about Ndigbo in particular and Nigeria in general.

The former governor said that the success or otherwise of his nomination would depend on the leaders of the South East.

Obi said that if elected into office, he would attract meaningful development to the area, adding that the time to address the yearnings of the people was now.

“This nomination is about our own area. We cannot continue to say we are marginalised. These are some of the opportunities to address whatever we think is not in our positions,” he said.

Obi said that his record as governor was not in doubt, adding that he believed in the masses.

Responding, Ugwuanyi described the former governor as a `trusted’ party man and a household name in the zone as well as in Nigeria.

The governor said that the PDP enjoyed great followership in the state, adding that they were appreciative of the massive support the party enjoyed during the 2015 general elections.

Ugwuanyi said that he had no doubt that the party would also do very well in the forthcoming elections in the state.

The governor congratulated the entire PDP on their successful and peaceful convention in Port Harcourt.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Obi also visited the President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo in his Enugu residence.

Nwodo, while receiving him said that the apex Igbo socio cultural organization would soon convene a meeting to take decision on the direction of the people in the coming election.

He described Obi as humble and incorruptible adding “your incorruptibility in government speaks volume.

“I look forward to when Ohaneze will take a decision on which party the Igbos will vote for and I wish it will be yours,’’ he said.

Facebook Inc (FB.O) has hired former British Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, to lead its global affairs and communications team, as the social network deals with a number of scandals related to privacy, fake news and election meddling.

The appointment makes Clegg, former leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats and deputy to David Cameron in the 2010-2015 coalition government, the most senior European politician ever in a leadership role in Silicon Valley.

Facebook said Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, were closely involved in the hiring process, and started talking to Clegg over the summer.

“Our company is on a critical journey.

“The challenges we face are serious and clear and now more than ever we need new perspectives to help us through this time of change,” Sandberg said on a Facebook post congratulating Clegg.

Clegg, 51, succeeds Elliot Schrage and will report to Sandberg beginning on Monday.

He will move to California with his family in the new year.

He was ousted as deputy prime minister after the Conservatives won a majority in 2015 in an election that saw his Liberal Democrats suffer a significant loss of support.

Clegg, whose appeal to younger voters was critically damaged when he broke a promise not to raise student tuition fees, lost his own seat in Britain’s parliament in an election last year.

He apologised in 2012 for breaking his promise on student charges, saying “I will never again make a pledge unless as a party we are absolutely clear about how we can keep it”.

Clegg is joining a company that has apologised for its mistakes and has promised to do better on many occasions, for example for breaching its users’ trust.

“Throughout my public life I have relished grappling with difficult and controversial issues and seeking to communicate them to others,” Clegg said in a Facebook post.

“I hope to use some of those skills in my new role.”

Clegg, a strong advocate of Britain’s membership of the EU, said it was a “wrench” to be leaving the public debate at a crucial time in Brexit, but added that key decisions would pass to parliament, of which he was no longer a member.

He will join his Liberal Democrat colleague Richard Allan at the social network.

Allan, a member of parliament between 1997 and 2005, who now sits in the upper house, is Facebook’s vice president of public policy for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Clegg has discussed online security and privacy, both when in office and more recently in newspaper articles.

“I’m not especially bedazzled by Facebook,” he said in an article in the London Evening Standard in 2016.

“While I have good friends who work at the company, I actually find the messianic Californian new-worldy-touchy-feely culture of Facebook a little grating.”

He also said he was not sure that companies such as Facebook really pay all the tax they could, although he added that was as much the fault of governments that still hadn’t got their tax act together.

Schrage, who led the social network’s response to its several scandals, stepped down from the role in June after a decade with the company.

Schrage will stay as an adviser, Facebook said.

Facebook has faced a barrage of criticism from users and lawmakers after it said in 2017 that Russian agents used its platform to spread disinformation before and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, an accusation Moscow denies.

In March, the company faced new scrutiny over how it protects personal information after acknowledging that the data of up to 87 million people ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.