Editorial
Between Minimum Wage And NASS Package
The recent media report that 469 lawmakers who were elected on the platform of various political parties in the February 23 National Assembly elections and the subsequent supplementary election will get a total of N4.68 billion as welcome package immediately after their inauguration in June, has once again elicited public discourse on the sincerity of government to improve the welfare of Nigerian workers.
The amount which covers accommodation and furniture allowances are two of the irregular (paid once every year) entitlements of lawmakers and other political office holders.
According to the computation contained in its Remuneration Package for Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders 2007 to Date and made public by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, each member of the House of Representatives on resumption, is entitled to N9,926, 062.50. This is the summation of furniture allowance of N5,955,637.50 and accommodation allowance of N3, 970,425 which a House of Representatives member is entitled to. Therefore, the 360 lawmakers that will make up the House of Representatives will be entitled to accommodation and furniture allowances of N3.57 billion.
On the other hand, each Senator is entitled to a combined furniture and accommodation allowance of N10,132,000 on assumption of office. While the accommodation allowance of a Senator is N4,052,800, the furniture allowance is N6,079,200. The 109 senators that will make up the 9th National Assembly will receive a total of N1.1 billion when the red chamber opens in June.
The Tide is disturbed that while the welfare packages of legislators and other public office holders are often handled with utmost dispatch, it is taking the same government and its agencies more than eight months to conclude and implement a new minimum wage of N30,000 for its workers whose fate has been encapsulated with series of untold challenges and sufferings.
While we recognise that regular payment of salaries and pensions is essential, government must also be conscious of the fact that the increasing cost of living and the recognition to ensure a fair and decent living wage has rendered the Minimum Wage instrument obsolete.
Sadly, several speeches have been made and assurances reiterated by the federal and state governments to the ‘ordinary’ workers. In his May Day speech, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo declared that the worst days are over for Nigerian workers. But beyond the speeches, lies endless hopes of expectations from the workers. On a daily basis, they face various challenges of job insecurity, rising cost of living and poverty.
No doubt, the punch of rising cost of living in Nigeria is made worse for the average worker by the absence of cushioning measures or palliatives such as increase in the minimum wage and improvement in social conditions.
However, in the face of massive job loss, poverty amidst backlog of salaries and benefits being owed, as well as other relevant welfare packages and incentive being denied workers, the typical Nigerian worker has often shown great zeal and dedication towards his service to his nation.
While we welcome the Federal Government’s promise to pay arrears any time implementation of the new wage begins, we take exception to the recent inauguration of yet another N30,000 new national minimum wage implementation committee, almost one month after President Muhammadu Buhari signed the bill into law.
Rather than wait till this time, we expected that all processes and procedures, including that of the Salaries and Wages Commission which the new wage needed to undergo for immediate commencement of its implementation, should have been completed before the passage and signing of the bill into law.
A situation where diverse categories of political office holders engage in outrageous spending and display of aristocratic effect through their flamboyant lifestyle, while the true bureaucrats who play major roles in administrative activities, nurturing of talents, policy formulation and implementation, among others are neglected should be discouraged.
We hope that this year will not end with nothing much to rejoice about following the current trajectory and seeming perks of abstract promises by the government, especially pertaining to the plight of workers who continually toil to serve the nation even in the face of discomfort, waking up daily to the news of everyday plan to implement the new minimum wage.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
