ORGANISED Labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trades Unions Congress, TUC, and their affiliates made good their threat to go on strike by end of May if the Federal Government failed to conclude negotiations on a new minimum wage. The Minimum Wage Act, signed into law by former president, Muhammadu Buhari, expired in April.
I am of the opinion that government has not taken the issue with the seriousness I think it deserves. The unseriousness, in my book, began with the composition of the committee. And 37 Nigerians were drawn from various stakeholder groups. Note: 37! Then, a request was made for government to approve the sum of N1 billion for the operations of the committee and other related matters, perhaps including transportation, accommodation, and victuals during the period the committee was to sit.
Till yesterday, none of them showed up at the committee’s sitting. The only governor that showed up there was Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, and he wasn’t even a member of the committee. I find the absence of the governors very disturbing, given the fact that, collectively, they have the largest number of workers that will get the minimum wage. From my book, that was utterly contemptuous of their imperial excellencies.
Anyways, a long time ahead of the strike, the Edo State Government had offered N70,000 as the figure it can afford to pay its workers as minimum wage. Since this is a national issue, what stopped the Federal Government from adopting the Edo template? Surely, a lot of considerations, especially ability to pay and sustainability of payment, must have attended the Edo offer before Governor Obaseki made it public.
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