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