The organized labour has discarded fears from the Nigeria Governor’s forum after they pleaded that the #60,000 minimum wage will be too high for some states to comply with.
The federal government of Nigeria proposed to the organised labour to have a #60,000 minimum wage after the previous #30,000 was seen as below per but later increased it to #62,000 after the tripartite cpmpleted their negotiations.
In a statement late Friday by a spokesperson for the NLC, Benson Upah, Labour condemned the statement by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum that the ₦60,000 minimum wage proposal by the Federal Government was not sustainable and cannot fly.
“We are alarmed by the statement credited to the Nigeria Governors Forum that state governments cannot even afford to pay N60,000 as minimum wage as “a few states will end up borrowing to pay workers every month”
We are not fixated with figures but value. Those who argue that moving the national minimum wage from N30,000 to N60,000 is sufficiently good enough miss the point. In 2019, when N30,000 became the minimum, N300 exchanged for $1 (effectively making the minimum wage an equivalent of $100 or thereabout) while inflation rate was 11.40.
At the moment the exchange rate is at N1,600 to $1 while inflation hovers at 33.7% (40% for food). This puts the value of the minimum wage at $37.5 for a family of six. This is happening at a time when costs of everything rose by more than 400% as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy. This is extremely bad news for the poor.
Government’s policies of fuel subsidy removal, mindless devaluation of the Naira, energy tariff hike by 250% and interest rate hike by 26.5% will continue to hurt the economy (especially the manufacturing sector) and the poor.
Already manifest is the mass incapcity of Nigerians leading to overflowing warehouses of the productive sector of the economy. The downward trend will continue except the capacity of workers and businesses is enhanced.
Paying a miserable national minimum wage portends grave danger to not only the workforce but the national economy as in truth, economies of most states are driven by workers wages.
In light of this, we urge the governors to do a re-think and save the country from a certain death.
Benson Upah
Head of Information and Public Affairs
