Not a few keen observers are wondering why civil servants in Akwa Ibom State are on strike over the implementation of the national minimum wage. Akwa Ibom State was said to be the first state in the country to approve the payment of the minimum wage after it was passed into law by the National Assembly and assented to by President Goodluck Jonathan. In August last year, Governor Godswill Akpabio signed the agreement for the implementation of the new wage, an action that was backed up with the release of N16.2 billion for the payment of salaries and accruable arrears.
Penultimate week however, workers in the state embarked on an indefinite strike after the government’s representatives and the organised labour failed to reach an agreement. Even the intervention of the national president of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Abdulwaheed Omar, who was in the state to mediate in the crisis, could not save the situation. Already, the crisis has claimed its first casualty with the removal of Ime Umoh, special adviser to Governor Akpabio on labour and productivity, a nominee of labour who was said to be fighting for the full implementation of the new wage, from the governor’s cabinet.
This magazine gathered that the bone of contention was the table prepared by the government for the payment of the new salary to workers, which was rejected by labour. The state government has called for relativity ratio in the implementation of the new wage to the effect that full implementation of the N18, 000 minimum wage would be for workers on grade level 01 to 06 while officers on grade level 07 to 12 would collect 65 percent of the new wage and 60 percent for those from 13 and above. This would have made every worker in the employ of the state government to receive at least N18, 000 and more monthly. This was rejected by labour which insisted that the implementation should be across board.
Aniekan Umanah, the state commissioner for information and communications, said labour’s grievance is selfish without recourse to improved welfare packages offered them by government including: tax rebate, 13th month salary called Akpabiomber, increased pension for retired permanent secretaries among others. The commissioner said what labour is fighting for is just like asking government to share the state’s allocation to them to eat. 
Sign that the path of the two parties might cross in the New Year emerged at the end of year get-together organised for journalists in the state last December. The state chairman of the NLC, Comrade Unyime Usoro who was in attendance used the occasion to attack the state government for what he believed was its unfriendly policies against workers in the state. Usoro accused the Akpabio government of running an unfriendly budget against an international standard. According to him, the over 80 percent budgeted for capital expenditure against 20 percent for recurrent does not tell well of a government that prides itself of being labour friendly. He said workers in the state would embark on strike action after the yuletide to ensure that government understands their misgiving with its unfriendly policy that has adversely affected human development. Umanah, the state commissioner for information was also present at the party. 
Last week, during an interview on state radio and television, Governor Akpabio expressed regret that labour which had entered into an agreement with government over the minimum wage issue is now calling workers on an industrial action. He accused the leadership of the NLC of politicising the welfare of workers and said only dialogue could resolve the crisis, which labour ought to have resorted to rather than proceeding on a strike action even when the state was the first to approve the new salary for them and released over N16 billion for the payment of salaries and accruable arrears.
Apart from the full implementation of the new wage, labour is also calling for the implementation of consolidated health salary structure and full implementation of consolidated judiciary salary structure as well as the reinstatement of Ime Umoh to his former position. Describing the removal of the special adviser as an act of desperation, Usoro said it demonstrates the level government could go to clamp down on any person who insists that the right thing should be done for the workers in the state. He warned against such plans to use some greedy labour leaders to blackmail him out of office. 
Government has said the strike is unnecessary and has threatened to implement “no-work-no-pay policy” for workers who have refused to go to work. Cecilia Udoessien, head of the state civil service, issued the warning on the first day of the strike.