The Chairman, Social Democratic Party, Mr Shehu Gabam has said that the federal government should have a minimum wage of over N100,000 to enable workers cope with the current economic situation.
Currently, it is unknown the next line of action from the organized labour after the federal government of Nigeria led by His Excellecy, Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu agreed to pay N62,000 as minimum wage.
The Nigerian Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress has already said in an interview through their leaders that they will not accept a 1, 2 or 3 thousand Naira addition in the N60,000 they earlier rejected.
After embarking on an indefinite strike, the President agreed to pay something higher than the N60,000 that was rejected by labour.
But the tripartite committee which was set up to help bring out a favourable National minimum wage proposed a N62,000 as minimum wage to the government while the organised labour lowered their asking price to N250,000.
But Gabam said, “For me, what I think at this stage: the government should do something above N100,000,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
“That’s what I think. It’s something that you can say is reasonably okay. It makes a little bit of sense. People can breathe, and people can go to work without thinking of sabotaging the institutions,” Gabam said.
“They have to consider reviewing this subsidy. I’ve mentioned this several times, you can get it right with the rate of subsidy the way it is,” the SDP leader said.
On the part of the state governors ability to comply with a new minimum wage to be introduced, Gabam said all the governors are rich enough to pay the expected figures.
“Any serious governor that can put his priorities right can pay N60,000 comfortably,” Gabam insisted, noting that if ghost workers are purged from the system, states can pay it.
“The tragedy is that the majority of the problems we are having today are from the states. The governors are contributing largely to the problem,” he said.
On the current hardship and high cost of living that has forced the organised labour to press hard for a new national minimum wage, the SDP chieftain blamed the government for the removal of fuel subsidy which has worsened things in the country.
“This government initiated this crisis by removing the fuel subsidy and naturally, they don’t need to be told that there are consequences that will follow. What we expected is that by the time the government made up its mind to remove the fuel subsidy and the pains that would follow thereafter, the consumption rates, the supply rates, and the demand rates of the nation, no one can stand it,” he said.
“You are paying civil servants and other private employees just N30,000. And then when you go to the market, there is nothing of the lowest that you can get at the cost of N30,000.”
