The long drawn-out new minimum wage battle between the organised Labour and Federal Government has taken its toll on all parties in this case. First, and most importantly, is the Nigerian workers who have been at the receiving end of spiraling inflation which has seen most Nigerians groaning and gasping for breath.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶
On the part of the government, the strike apart from its economic effect on an economy that is yet to find its footings after the COVID-19 global pandemic, wrong choices on the part of successive governments, the effect of petrol subsidy removal and floating of the naira have contributed to stunting the fortunes of the nation.
As for Labour, while it is fighting for the betterment of the lot of Nigerian workers, its struggle has been smeared and tarred by politicians with unfounded, and rather unfortunately too, allegations of political partisanship.
First, a N30,000 minimum wage is not only evil and inhuman, given the current realities, but also unacceptable and must be significantly adjusted upward. Fortunately, all parties in this depute have agreed on this fact. But the vital question here is what would be the right minimum wage for the Nigerian workers, at a time when inflation has ensured that N30,000 today is enough to pay for the transport of workers to and from work for a month, let alone take care of their accommodation, feeding, electricity bills etc.
For the federal government, it should not be unexpected that with the removal of subsidy on petroleum, hike in electricity tariffs, the continued depreciation of the naira against the dollar, in an economy that is unfortunately denominated in dollar, that the Nigerian workers would just carry on like everything is normal. More so, when in spite of the cry of the government of dwindling revenue, it can be seen that government functionaries at all levels are living ostentatious lifestyles that do not reflect the same.
For Labour, the tendency by some spin doctors to reduce their agitations to mere politics is not only unfortunate but disgraceful. It is a reflection of our present reality where everything has been reduced to politics. It is an ill wind that does no one any good. Labour has been accused of partisan politics and only advancing the case of the Labour Party, as though the agitations of the unions are not genuine and clear for all to see.
Who does not know that N30,000 cannot feed even a student in one month? Those unfortunate Nigerians who only see things from the narrow prism of politics, religion and tribe are the real enemies of the nation.
That said, are the figures bandied about by Labour realistic? Certainly not. But it is also obvious that Labour leaders also know this but are only using these to negotiate better and significant increases in the take homes of Nigerian workers.
At the 2024 May Day celebration, Labour had insisted that N615,000 was ideal for a national minimum wage for the least paid worker but had to downgrade its demand to N500,000, then N497,000 before finally capping it at N494,000.
The government team had to also shift grounds from an initial offer of N48,000 to N54,000 then N57,000 before settling for N60,000 when negotiations broke down to pave the way for an industrial action.
Recall that a nationwide strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress last Monday, had grounded economic and social activities, including the debilitating effect of a total blackout across the nation following the shutting down of the national power grid as well as grounding of flights across the country.
Part of the condition for suspending the strike was the agreement by the government to reconsider its initial stand of not going beyond its offer of N60,000.
The development had prompted a marathon meeting between the Secretary to the Government of the Federation under George Akume and other government functionaries in President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet who did everything possible to extract a commitment to top up the minimum wage above the N60,000 benchmark.
By Friday, after several hours of deliberations by the tripartite committee, the FG had offered N62,000. Labour, on its part, also beat down their demand to N250,000.
Meanwhile, thestategovernorswho are ever opposed to salary adjustments to workers and who have never shown good faith whenever wage negotiations take place, have risen up in arms against the N60,000 offered by the FG. They claimthatsomestatesarestillgrappling with the current N30,000 wage bill.
The governors under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors Forum rejected the proposal in a statement issued on Friday by the Director of Media and Public Affairs for NGF, Halimah Ahmed. The governors said the proposed minimum wage is too high and not sustainable.
NGF expressed concerns that if the N60,000 minimum wage is adopted, many states would allocate their entire Federal Account Allocation Committee funds to salaries, leaving no resources for development projects.
All things considered, the NGF holds that the N60,000 minimum wage proposal is not sustainable and can not fly. “It will simply mean that many states will spend all their FAAC allocations on just paying salaries with nothing left for development purposes. In fact, a few states will end up borrowing to pay workers every month. We do not think this will be in the collective interest of the country, including workers,” they claim.
The position of the governors is a testimony to the fact that our current federal structure is not working and therefore calls for reconsideration. It is a shame that each time minimum wage is discussed, all the governors say is that it would mean that their allocations from FAAC would end up being paid as wages.
For heaven’s sake why not? If all the governors do is fold their arms and wait for FAAC all year, without doing something serious about raising internally generated revenue. If they cannot grow their state economies through IGR, they should pay all FAAC allocation as salaries, for all I care.
Meanwhile, these state governors are living large and squandering resources on phantom, spurious projects and as well as embarking in frivolous trips abroad in search of phony investment while using the avenue to siphon state resources.
What it also points to is the fact that governanceisnotforanyTom, Dickand Harry, but only for those who have the capacitytodoso. Thesesamegovernors populate theirstatecivil servicewith politicalcroniesand hangers-on who have no economic benefits to their states.
A recent investigation by the PUNCH revealed that no fewer than 30 state governments of the federation spent N986.64 billion on recurrent expenditures, including refreshments, sitting allowances, travelling, utilities, etc., in the first three months of 2024.
The states’ budget implementation reports, which were obtained from Open Nigerian States, a website supported by BudgIT that acts as a repository for public budget data, were analysed, and revealed that for the first three quarters of the year, budget implementation data from 30 states; data for six states was not available.
A breakdown showed that the 30-state government spent N5.1bn on refreshments for guests, N4.67bn on sitting allowances to government officials, N34.63bn on local and foreign travel expenses, and N5.64bn on utility bills, amounting to N50.02bn in the first three months of 2024. The general utilities include electricity, internet, telephone charges, water rates, and sewerage charges, among others. The states also paid N405.77bn as salaries to their workers.
These are the same governors spending billions of naira buying properties all over the globe, the same people spending billions on over-inflated projects that they know, ab initio, would not be executed before leaving office, the same governors whose children are replicating the obnoxious behaviours of their fathers abroad and owning properties that they have no chance in hell to afford on their own, if their parents had not gone into public service. These are governors who are paying well ahead with scarce resources for the education of their children and wards.
My only plea is that Labour as much as possible saves us from the effect of any industrial action. Secondly, they should consider their negotiation so far, as a success, after all its over 100 per cent increase, even though it amounts to little given the current economic situation in the country, but they also should be mindful of the adverse effect, by way of inflation, such increase would have on the general economy since not all Nigerians are civil servants or have a job for that matters
Meanwhile, kudos to the Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, who has not only increased the minimum wage to N70,000 but has actually begun paying it. That is the way to go. Governance is not for miscreants and never do wells but for people who have something to offer.
That said, Labour should consider something in the region of what Obaseki is offering and avoid throwing the country into any round of sufferings and hardships. Any state governor that cannot match Edo should begin to consider leaving office and the people should ensure that they are voted out of office when the elections come, by the special grace of INEC and our lame duck judiciary.