According to the Federal Government, it has started paying federal officials N35,000 in five-month wage award arrears since the end of May 2025.
This comes as the federal government made it clear that all of its workers will now get a minimum wage payment of N70,000.
Before work resumes following the Eid-Al-Adha holidays, Bawa Mokwa, Director of Media at the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, provided these clarifications in an exclusive interview with reporters on Monday.
In an interview with Arise Television on Sallah Day (last Friday), the Nigeria Labour Congress, through its spokesperson Benson Upah, criticized President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration for the tardiness in paying wage awards and allowances.
Upah had bemoaned how the Tinubu administration had disregarded the wellbeing of its employees as civil officials suffered from economic hardship.
He called the delay “shameful” and a “betrayal of trust.”
Upah said, “This is totally unacceptable. It is an abuse of our patience and a betrayal of trust.”
In response, Mokwa clarified that the government has stopped making wage award arrears payments.
He said that during the next four months, the payment will be made in installments.
“We have started to pay the N35,000 in unpaid wages.
Except for certain organizations, including the Independent National Electoral Commission, which pay for the wage award on their own.
The federal government used the N35,000 salary award as a stopgap measure prior to approving the N70,000 minimum wage.
Although this was completed in five months, Labour contended that there was a five-month arrears and that the payment did not start right away.
We have already paid the first month out of the five. He informed reporters that the remaining four months would be paid in installments.
Mokwa further explained that the federal government has started paying the minimum wage to all of its parastatals, ministries, and agencies.
“It has been applied universally to the minimum wage,” he continued.
As at the time this report was filed, attempts to contact Upah on the issue have failed.
Remember how Tinubu signed the minimum wage bill into law in July?
But even a year after the minimum wage was approved, there are still complaints about its full implementation at the federal and state levels.
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