By Euclid Myke
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has lamented that the 70,000 minimum wage is not a living wage and has not improved workers welfare as economic reality has eroded it but merely keeping workers alive.
Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, a member of Minimum Wage Committee of the NLC who admitted the reality on Thursday while speaking with journalistsndutong the Workers Day celebration, said that unions will go back to the negotiation table to talk about living wage since the N70,000 is no longer a living wage.
According to him, workers are just celebrating that they are still alive and not that they are workers or earning a meaningful wage.
He said, “A situation where you said, you have increased minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000, somebody who is earning N200,000 should be expecting a minimum of 75 percent increase but in this case you have people being given N40,000 across board.
“The situation is like there was nothing really done because the hardship has continued. Look at the fact that so many states have not paid the minimum wage. You have a situation where tax has increased by 66 percent, there’s also the issue of electricity tariff, increase in fuel pump price. There’s also an increase in the tariff on communications. There’s so much money coming into government coffers but the workers are suffering. You can see why the World Bank is saying that the poverty line has increased. It has increased from 38 percent to 47 percent. So, 47 percent of Nigerians are now living below the poverty line. We’re going to discuss the living wage because the inflationary trend has eroded the much that was done to see how we can lift people up from poverty.
“There was a strike recently in the FCT because the FCT administration hasn’t paid the minimum wage. The same FCT that hasn’t paid minimum wage, the council chairman has defected to another party. You then wonder if he hasn’t paid workers which make up the majority of the population, and he’s defecting to another party. How does he expect to win election in a party under which Nigerians are suffering, because he believes he’ll be helped to win the election not by voting, because he wouldn’t be relying on the voters but on abracadabra to win.
“Today we say we’re celebrating workers Day. What are we celebrating? I think we’re just celebrating that we’re still alive and not that we’re workers.
On the way forward, he said, “The way forward is to get back to the drawing board. To see that the struggle continues. We’ll need to continue to talk to those in power to know that we can’t continue like this. Within one year the poverty line has increased by 10 percent, from 38 to 47 percent. This 47 percent is over 100,000 million Nigerians.
“Instead of the percentage decreasing it’s increasing. Somebody will say that the economy is improving, how can the economy improve while we’re dying of hunger in this country?”
He said that there must be more engagements with the political class to ensure that workers welfare are improved upon.
“The way forward is to get back to the drawing board. To see the struggle continues. We’ll need to continue to talk to those in power to know that we can’t continue like this. If within one year the poverty line has increased by 10 percent, from 38 to 47 percent. This 47 percent is over 100,000 million Nigerians. “Instead of the percentage deceasing it’s increasing. Somebody will say that the economy is improving, how can the economy improve while we’re dying of hunger in this country. When you’re talking about workers day you’re not just talking about those who have been captured in the orgainised labour.
“The workforce in this country is about 50 percent, that is 110 million people. If you have 110,000 workforce and you have over 100,000 million people below poverty line, this country is heading to disaster. We’ll go back to the drawing board and also look at the issue of governance. Why people in governance don’t get bothered about the masses, it’s because they don’t really depend on our votes to get to power. It takes us to the issue of how we need to maneuver to get Nigeria to make sure that our votes count because if an elected governor or a member of House of Representatives or Senate knows that he’s coming bank to the voters to seek for their votes, definitely he’ll make sure that He empowers them economically.
“In a situation where I know I don’t need them I will just defect to another party, an organization that will help you get to power without the votes from the masses. This brings us to issue of electoral reform. It’s not a rocket science because there are countries where you can vote and there is no rigging, and votes count. How do we mobilise to ensure that our votes count in Nigeria so that the people we elect into office will take care of us? We’ll renegotiate with government and tell them the way things are. You get N70,00 but that N70,000 impoverishes the workers and this N40,000 across board is a no, no. We also look at all the tariffs, inflationary trends and the issue of job creation, so that Nigerians can work for their pay.”