Market News

•Says some states not upholding nation’s minimum marriage age of 18

•Flags lengthy pretrial detention as serious problem in Nigeria

BY  Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

A US report on Nigeria has said that the recent new minimum wage of N70,000 ($47.9) approved by the federal government for federal workers has been eroded by the devaluation of the Naira, which has risen to over N1,500/$1.

In the latest Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2024 by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour,  the US noted that upon that, firms with less than 25 workers did not benefit from the new wage.

“The law provided for a national minimum wage for public and private sector employers with 25 or more full-time employees, with exceptions for seasonal agricultural workers, part-time workers, those on commission, and some others.

“The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act 2024 doubled the minimum wage to 70,000 naira ($47.90) per month. Despite the increase, currency devaluation meant the minimum wage was no longer higher than the poverty income level. Many employers had fewer than 25 employees, so most workers were not covered,” the report said.

Besides, it stated that some states have declined to implement the minimum wage law, citing financial constraints, with the law mandating a 40-hour workweek, two to four weeks of annual leave, and overtime and holiday pay, except for agricultural and domestic workers.

In the same vein, it stressed that the law did not define premium pay or overtime and prohibited excessive compulsory overtime for civilian government employees, stressing that the government rarely effectively enforced minimum wage and overtime, while penalties were low and not commensurate with other crimes such as fraud.

“Between 70 and 80 per cent of the country’s working population worked in the informal economy. Authorities did not enforce wage, hour, and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) laws and inspections in the informal sector or with part-time workers,”  it said.

On the rights of young people as they relate to marriage, the US report noted that while 18 years remain the age of consent, several states in the country routinely flout this law, with children getting married at as low as 11 years.

“Federal law sets a minimum age of 18 for marriage for both boys and girls. While 35 states, all except Zamfara State, adopted the law, many states, especially northern states, did not uphold the federal minimum age.

“In some states, children as young as 11 could be legally married under customary or religious law. The government worked with local and international partners to engage religious leaders, emirs, and sultans on the issue, emphasising the health hazards of early marriage,” the report emphasised.

The report further indicated that there were reports of disappearances by or on behalf of government authorities, quoting Amnesty International (AI), which said the whereabouts of “dozens of young men detained at SARS Awkuzu,” a former SARS police station in Anambra State, remained unaccounted for since the disbandment of the SARS in 2020.

The report also highlighted prolonged detention without charges, stating that while the constitution and law prohibited arbitrary arrest and detention and provided for the right of any person to challenge the lawfulness of their arrest or detention in court, the government sometimes did not observe these requirements.

“Police and other security services had the authority to arrest individuals without a warrant if officials reasonably suspected a person committed a crime. Security forces sometimes abused this authority.

“The law required subjects be brought before a magistrate within 48 hours and have access to

lawyers and family members. According to the law, initial pretrial detention orders were not to exceed 14 days. In some instances, government and security employees did not adhere to this regulation.

“The law required an arresting officer to allow the suspect to obtain counsel and post bail for some crimes. Provision of bail was often arbitrary or subject to extrajudicial influence. In many areas with no functioning bail system, suspects were incarcerated indefinitely in investigative detention,” it added.

At times, the US said that the authorities kept detainees incommunicado for long periods, with security personnel reportedly arbitrarily arresting numerous persons during the year.

“In their prosecution of corruption cases, law enforcement and intelligence agencies did not always follow due process, arresting suspects without appropriate arrest and search warrants,” the report stated.

It also flagged lengthy pretrial detention as a serious problem, pointing out that detainees often waited years to gain access to a court, and in many cases, multiple adjournments resulted in years-long delays.

“Some detainees were held in pretrial detention for periods equal or exceeding the maximum sentence for the accused crime. The shortage of trial judges, trial backlogs, endemic corruption, bureaucratic inertia, and undue political influence seriously hampered the judicial system.

“Some detainees had their cases delayed because the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Correctional Service did not have vehicles to transport them to court. Some individuals remained in detention because authorities lost their case files,” it said.