Opinion
New Minimum Wage: Before The Jubilation Starts
If you are a tailor and you employ additional hands, you cannot pay them below N70,000. If you are a mother with a newborn child and you want to hire a housemaid to look after your child, you cannot pay the person below the approved minimum wage. It is not a maximum wage. It applies to all and sundry. “If you hire a driver or gateman, you cannot pay them below N70,000. So, I’m very delighted that this has been passed, and we now look forward to employers of labour improving on what has been set as a benchmark for all to follow.” This statement by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, is my greatest take on the issue of the newly approved minimum wage of N70,000. Meanwhile, one wishes to join other well-meaning citizens to congratulate the leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress for their unrelenting efforts and commitment which resulted in the upward review of workers’ salary and the reduction in the term of negotiations from five years to three years.
From the revelation of the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, that the Labour leaders had to accept N70,000 when President Bola Tinubu threatened to increase the pump price of the Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) if he must pay the N250,000 minimum wage demanded by labour, it could be deciphered that the negotiation was not an easy task at all. But it is all good. He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. Now back to Akpabio’s comment. So, going forward, every worker in Nigeria – nanny, house keeper, gardener, cleaners, drivers, road sweepers and others are entitled to at least N70, 000 per month. This is actually plausible because over the years, the people in the lower cadres of employment, particularly those in the private sector have suffered neglect. You see a sales girl, a house keeper, who goes to work six days in a week and spends about 10 hours at work being paid N15,000 or N20,000 at the end of the month. How they survive on such paltry sum remains a wonder.
So, it is encouraging that the law makers stepped in to check this kind of slave labour. Whoever cannot pay the minimum wage should not want the services of the workers. But as the saying goes, talk is cheap; it is one thing to make the pronouncement and another to be convinced and ensure that it works. Are there plans by the law makers both at federal and state levels to ensure effective implementation of this? What are the plans by government to create employment for the citizens since following the senate’s rule will definitely throw many people out of job? Again, if by increasing the workers’ minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000 (which we are sure that some states might not be able to pay), their financial responsibilities are also doubled, then what is the essence of the increase? Let us not talk about the inflation that will result from the salary increase because that is inevitable. Traders, businessmen/women and service providers will soon begin to demand citizens’ pound of flesh.
In my opinion article of June 22, 2023, I had canvassed that rather than the workers being paid thousands of Naira which cannot afford much, the nation’s economy should be fixed, the value of the Naira should be strengthened so that the salaries of workers will be more meaningful. That position has not changed. As far back as the year 2000 when some of us got employed, the minimum wage was N5,500 but then the Dollar exchange rate to the Naira was $1 to N85,98. Today, the exchange rate is officially N1,584 to a dollar. Unofficially, it could be as high as N1,600.00 or more to a Dollar, depending on your source. The value of the Nigerian currency has depreciated badly. The inflation rate keeps going up. And the worst hit is the worker who depends on his salary for all his bills – accommodation, health, electricity, gas, transportation, feeding, school fees, name it.
Time was, when accommodation was provided for government workers, car loans were given to certain levels of civil servants, staff buses and mass transit buses provided by the government were functional, education scholarships and other welfare packages for workers were easy to come by. Today, this is a tall order. So, one would suggest that in addition to wage increase, the labour leaders and the government, both federal and states, should think of how to revive the Nigerian economy and improve the purchasing power of the Naira. Chief among the considerations in this line should be the revival of the nation’s refineries. It is a known fact which has been emphasised often and on by experts, economists and other well-meaning Nigerians that without the nation’s refineries being up and running, the cost of living, the cost of doing business in the country will continue to go up and the citizens will continue to suffer.
Indeed, it is baffling how an oil producing nation like Nigeria, with about 200 million population and an estimated 12.8 per cent annual demand and consumption of petroleum cannot boast of a single functional refinery. Even the hope of having a succour in Dangote Refinery is being dashed by the feud between the Dangote group and the federal regulators. We continue to thrive in the business of exporting our God-given crude oil to other countries that may not be blessed with the natural resource, but have patriotic, selfless leaders, who consider the good of their countries above every other thing and have invested enormously on infrastructure like refineries to make lives better for their citizens. An analyst once likened what happens in Nigeria’s oil sector to a farmer who after planting, nurturing and harvesting his yams, takes them to a far away community to sell at a give away price. He later goes back to the same buyer who has cooked and pounded the yam to buy food to feed his family at an exorbitant price. Can this farmer be considered to be wise?
So, labour leaders should come up with ideas on how to have functional refineries in the country, dialogue with the government on best ways to implement those plans. They should constantly engage the authorities on this. They can give the government an ultimatum on when to get the agreed plans executed so that the issue of fuel importation will be a bygone in the country. Failure of the government to keep to the bargain, labour can take whatever legal action to press home their demands and they will definitely have the support of most Nigerians. The issue of high cost of electricity should also be looked at. Nigerians are crying over high electricity tariff which gets increased every now and then even without informing the consumer. The recent increase of tariff for customers on Band A has dealt a heavy blow on many small, medium and even large-scale companies. Yet, these are the businesses that are expected to pay their workers a minimum of N70,000 monthly.
Our labour leaders should also, with the government, come up with measures to tackle the insecurity and unwarranted killings in our rural communities so that people that fled their lands can go back, farming activities will pick up and there will be sufficient food for the citizens. Some of the labour’s demands at the negotiation stage like tax holidays for employees both in the public and private sectors that earn less than N200,000 or $500 monthly; mass transit vehicles for all categories of the populace; an immediate review of the National Health Insurance Scheme to cover more Nigerians. a petrol allowance for workers; a framework that will be geared towards reducing the cost of governance by 15 per cent in 2024 and 30 per cent by 2025 should be expeditiously addressed for the new minimum wage to impact positively on the workers’ lives.
Calista Ezeaku
Quote:”Communities have rights to peace, safety, and quality of life. Noise pollution, crowds, or other impacts from religious activities can affect these rights. Balancing these interests requires consideration and dialogue”.
“All work and no play”, its said, “makes Jack a dull boy.” Despite this age-long maxim that recognises the role of play in early childhood development, play appears to be eluding many Nigerian kids. The deprivation of play opportunities comes in different forms for the Nigerian child depending on family’s social setting or status, but the effect is much the same. For children in Nigerian poor families, life is becoming as much a hassle as it is for their struggling parents. Due to harsh economic conditions, many families resort to engaging their kids prematurely in trading activities especially in hawking, to help boost family revenues, when these kids should be enjoying leisure after school. Some of these children barely attend schools while being forced to spend much of their childhood hustling in the streets. For children from well-off families, time could be as crunchy as it is for their busy parents when, obsessed with setting agenda for the future of their kids, parents arrange stringent educational regiment too early for their kids.
These group of children are made to get-off the bed by 5.30am every weekday, get ready for private school buses that call at 6.00am, otherwise report by however means to school at 7.20am.The situation is worse for kids in the city of Lagos where the need to beat urban traffic rush-hours is very high. Most children are further subjected to extra hours of lessons after school at 2.00pm, only to be released with loads of homework. On many occasions children who leave home for school at 6.30am get back by 3.30pm. With hardly enough time to eat, do school assignments and take afternoon naps, these children hardly had time for plays before dinners. In Nigeria, kids of ages between 3 and 12 spend averages of 9 hours a day and 45 hours a week to and from schools, and additional hours doing home assignments and domestic jobs, whereas their peers in developed countries spend about half that duration and have more time for leisure.
Any remaining spare time left after school work or street hustle is further stolen, when kids who usually are fascinated by gadgets, are exposed to household electronics like phones, tablets and gaming consoles. Electronic games may create a sense of leisure, but the difference with human interactions is that kids doing games interface mostly with machines or with programme structured in ways that entrap a child’s pysch directionally, according to the game’s programming, in ways that may not encourage independent thinking. Moreso, attraction to such gadgets displaces kids’ attention from important television and radio programmes. The prevalent tight, academic schedules for some Nigerian kids, though intended for academic excellence, encroaches on childhood leisure time needed to achieve an all-round childhood development, and could make children to resent formal education altogether. Besides, academic excellence or economic pursuit, is not all there is to living a well-nurtured life.
Children’s leisure time, defined as time left over after sleeping, eating, personal hygiene and attending school or day-care, is very crucial to childhood development. Sociologists recommend that children should have at least 40 per ceny of the day as leisure. According to Berry Brazelton, a former pediatrician at Harvard Medical School, “Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about him or herself.” Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, and in the process build self-confidence and self-control. Play is one of the important ways in which young children gain essential knowledge and skills. Leisure time enhances learning as fun enables children to learn at their own level and pace. Young children naturally explore and learn many skills by making cognitive connections from events that catch their attention.
Unstructured plays help children developed their cognitive, physical and communication skills that make them acquire social qualities necessary in navigating relationships in adult life. Plays enable children assess how others feel and learn perspectives as well as empathy through observing differences in facial expressions, body language and even tone of voice, which helps them copy how to express themselves to others, and therefore develop socially acceptable behavours that build relationships. In cooperative activities, children willingly take things in turn and may delegate roles. Children can also share the glory of winnings through competitive games, which is all great for working together in task sharing. Aside encouraging parents to ensure adequate leisure time for their kids at home, schools should make plays and exercises an integral part of the educational curriculum. The educational curriculum set by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) includes specific training durations and break periods, as well as sporting activities, as part of the school system.
Due to poor government funding, sports in public schools have declined, while most private schools lack sporting infrastructure or even play grounds. These make recreational activities and sports implementation almost impossible in schools. Also, the increasing rate of urbanisation in Nigerian communities is gradually eroding ancient playgrounds, while established urban centres have lost community playgrounds. With tightening apartment spaces now being the norm in most urban residential areas, many kids are forced to wriggle within burglary-proof enclosures. Nigerian governments and the relevant agencies should ensure that existing child labour protection laws, educational and urban development codes are implemented in the country, to enable proper nurturing of children as the future stakeholders of our society. Private schools, especially, should be supervised to ensure they follow the educational curriculum standards set by NERDC.
In a bid to impress parents and draw more patronage as better option than public schools, private schools, most of whom operate in cramped environments, have continued to set high regiments of training schedules beyond the capacity of most kids, and even encourage enrollment of pre-school age kids who can not sit still to listen for an extended periods of time. Schools, from creche to secondary levels, without playgrounds and recreational facilities should not be allowed to operate, and should be made to understand and implement appropriate curriculum and training durations. Many Nigerian kids, whether from rich or poor families, appear to have been set-up inadvertently, in the same leisure denial that affects their parents. All work and no play could lead to some messed-up kids who grow up not understanding social cues, and being unemotional and self-centered, manifest later as obsessive-compulsive adults.
By: Joseph Nwankwo
We thank God who is above all human contrivance and arrogance. Congratulations, Your Excellency Amaopusenibo Sir Siminalayi Joseph Fubara. Your victory takes us back to the Bible as a living document of a God that rules in the affairs of all His creation. In a manner of speaking, welcome back from your first war with Phillistines, Your Excellency! Yes, first example is David and Goliath! And like David, Your Excellency stands over Goliath in victory. But that is not enough. Our real enemy is that Your Excellency is Governor of a State with a wretched economy. Indigenes of Your State are today reduced to battalions of beggars waiting for who will hire their loyalty on the usual “pay-as-you-go” basis.
Your Excellency, it brings us to another Bible- based parallel. Conscientious Rivers indigenes above 50, should identify with and commit our all to this second parallel. It is to liberate the economy and people of Rivers people from 23 years enslavement and poverty, for us to regain our dignity and pride. When the economy of Egypt was drifting into a disaster zone, even Pharaoh did not know it. He also did not know what to do. But God sent a Joseph to build the economy into a fortress of good fortune that overcame the economic and social disaster Egypt did not know was ahead. Your Excellency for 23 years, Rivers State has been ruled without any logical, credible and consistent PLAN of how to overcome mass poverty from our dehydrated local economies.
Your Excellency, Rivers State cannot survive one month without Federal allocation! So called IGR only about 10 per cent of Federal allocation.It is also not based on what we produce but on tax from other people’s productivity that pass through our State. Pharaoh did not know what to do in the case of Egypt. May it please God to position another Joseph in Governor Siminalayi Joseph Fubara to heal Rivers State and build an economy that all Africa will come to access in order to chart a new course out of worsening economic hardship that is caused by near zero investment in productivity and endemic reckless looting. They are the twin chambers nursing a corporate cancer unfolding across Nigeria and Africa. The hard work begins today, Your Excellency.
We need an economic blueprint that will enrich every Rivers senatorial district from investment to grow productivity and to enrich every Rivers person from career-based productive labour, just as Pharaoh was enriched by Joseph’s economic Blueprint. Let Rivers State stop the trend of waiting the lives of young Rivers people recruited by Phillistines into cultism, thuggery and easy money, as a career. These Phillistines believe they have only lost one phase of many legal battles and battles by other means. But from comments in the public media, their eyes are fixed on 4-years of war and more! Your Excellency, we the people will not let you forget what you owe us. We have to make unbelievers see that your leadership is different and that we are uprooting the old order of an unproductive Feudal System. That system makes a few persons and their cronies to monopolise our collective wealth, while the majority are left in misery. Let’s put an end to enslavement by cabals and mass poverty in Rivers State. That is when the Phillistines will surrender.
By: Amaopusenibo Brown