FG tackles Saraki on budget, begs Labour on minimum wage

The Federal Government yesterday tackled the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki for describing the 2019 budget proposal as a hopeless document.

Saraki had on Thursday urged Nigerians not to expect much from it.

The Federal Government also appealed to the organised labour to discard its December 31 ultimatum over lingering disagreement with state governments on the proposed N30, 000 national minimum wage.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed made the appeal while responding to questions from State House Correspondents.

On Saraki, Mohammed said, “It is not the practice of the executive to be exchanging words with the legislative arm of government, they are independent, we are independent but to the best of our knowledge, we presented a budget given the circumstances of our resources this year. It is left for the National Assembly to consider it.”

On the NLC’s ultimatum, he said: “The Nigeria Labour Congress is a very patriotic union and I am very confident that they will not do anything that will embarrass the government or do anything that is going to worsen the situation. Continuous engagement I think is the key, we continue to engage them and I think they do also fully understand what the challenges are.”