A PUBLIC sector strike launched in 24 of Nigeria’s 36 states was picking up support as it entered its third day, union officials said Thursday. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) ordered the strike to begin Tuesday to press state governments to start paying all workers a monthly minimum wage agreed last month of 3000 naira ($33). Support Tuesday was patchy but by Thursday the strike was strongly supported in east and southwestern Nigeria and support was rising in northern Nigeria, an NLC official said. Workers were staying away in Ekiti, Ogun and Osun in southwestern Nigeria, in Kwara in the centre, Taraba in the north and in Abia and Adamawa in the east, NLC General Secretary Salisu Mohammed said. Only 12 of the country’s 36 states, including the economic capital Lagos and the oil-producing Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers states in the south, have so far paid the new wages, agreed by the unions and federal negotiators last month. The administrators of the remaining 24 insist they cannot afford the new wage bill without sacking large numbers of workers, something the unions oppose.