Business
…As Reactions Trail N56,000 Proposal
In commemoration of this
year’s Workers’ Day, the labour movements in Nigeria, made a N56,000 minimum wage demand on the government.
This demand, which should by all means please Nigerian workers, has however raised mixed reactions from the same workers who would supposedly benefit from it.
An assistant director with the state ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Jonah Isikima, sarcastically applauded the move by labour and asked, “where have these labour leaders been. Is it that they are hard of hearing or have not been in this country?
“Much as I would benefit if implemented, but lets be realistic. The monthly federal allocation to this state for example is N2 billion short of salary bill of the state as we are told, so where does labour expect the government to get the money to meet this their incredulous demand,” he continued.
Isikima pointed out that many states for the past one year have not been able to regularly pay the current N18,000 minimum wage “And now they ask government to pay N56,000, well my take is that they want the usually settlement for themselves not for the workers they represent.
“We know that the present day Nigerian labour leaders are completedly compromised”, was the response of Mr Sunny Dede, a staff of Nigeria Ports Authority.
Dede noted that, “gone are the days when labour unions truly represented Nigerian workers and worked for their wellbeing . now, what they do is make unnecessary noise and give altimatums so that their palms would be greased otherwise, how do you explain this demand? Oil , our economic mainstay has taken a nose dive for the past one year and we hear that it would remain so for a while and now this demand for a new minimum wage of N56,000. This is not realistic at all.
Another respondent, Mrs Ibifubara Inetimi, a Rivers -born teacher in Bayelsa State, stated, “what labour should think of doing in the present situation is to make government devise ways of increasing the purchasing power of our Naira and seek her welfare packages like improved healthcare system, power supply, make petrol available to workers than this unattainable demand. Some of us in Bayelsa have not been paid for about eight months, where would the money come to pay arrears before paying new minimum wage, we will enjoy it, but it is not a demand for now.
“Labour is obviously disconnected from the reality on ground. You and I know that many states are yet to pay the current minimum wage, this simply means that the demand, will not fly with the government, given the current economic situation unless labour is prepared to prune the work force generally to 30 per cent across the country, then the new minimum wage could be paid, says Mr Romanus Chinedu, a businessman.
Chinedu lamented that, “it is unfortunate that labour has deviated from course of fighting for the good of Nigerian workers, now a days, they fight for their good only.
For Mrs. Kano Kpandei, a local government staff, it is a good move that should be accepted and implemented by the federal government, saying, ” after all, the politician who has never worked in his life is receiving much more than that, so whig shouldn’t the workers who break their backs everyday to ensure that the country is run smoothy not have just a little bit of their labour.
Tonye Nria-Dppa