Breaking: House Of Reps Approve 30,000 Minimum Wage

The lawmakers passed the bill during Tuesday’s plenary presided over by the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara.

They approved the figure after the bill was read and passed for the third time on the floor of the lower chamber of the National Assembly in Abuja.

Prior to the passage of the bill, the House adopted the report of the ad-hoc committee set up to look into the bill presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.

It said it decided to adopt the report of the tripartite committee because of the obvious difficult living conditions in the country.

The lawmakers inserted a clause in the bill which makes it effective from the date it is asserted to by the President.

They, however, retained the original clause in the bill which excluded employers of less than 25 people from paying the new minimum wage.

In the face of the recent development, the bill would be sent to the Senate for concurrence.

Earlier, the lawmakers concluded debate on the 2019 Appropriation Bill, as well as read and passed it through the second reading.

They consequently referred the bill to the House Appropriations Committee and other related sub-committees for further actions.

The House then adjourned plenary till February 19, after the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

The speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has formerly announced his defection from the ruling All Progressives Congresss (APC) to the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

The speaker made the announcement on Tuesday during plenary.

The speaker announced his defection to the PDP alongside two other legislators, Edward Pwajok and Ahmed Yerima.

The speaker, in September 2018 laid to rest speculations of his defection from the APC to the PDP as he visited the national secretariat of his new party in Abuja where he submitted his forms for the House of Representatives election.

His actions came a week after hundreds of supporters from his Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa federal constituency of Bauchi State presented him a PDP nomination and expression of interest forms, urging him to leave the ruling APC.

Mr. Dogara, who has been having running battle with his state governor, Mohammed Abubakar, has been long expected to leave the APC for PDP.

Unlike other members of the National Assembly who made public their defections, Mr Dogara kept his decision closely-guarded till the last plenary before the 2019 general elections.

Speaking at the PDP office at the time, Mr. Dogara said he had left the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

“I have decided to come back,” Mr Dogara told the jubilant crowd as he submitted the 2019 expression of interest and nomination forms.

He said the APC in Bauchi state had not delivered on any of its promises to the people, hence his decision to leave.