The Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) have proposed that the current minimum wage of N18,000 should be increased to N52,000.
The unions also warned of dire consequences, which may include the shutting down of state governments, if the governors carry out their threat to reduce the N18,000 minimum wage or retrench workers.
According to the TUC President Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, the Congress had concluded plans to engage the government in dialogue towards increasing the minimum wage to N52,000.
Kaigama described as laughable the claim by some governors that N18,000 minimum wage was imposed on them when oil sold for $126 as against the present price of $41 per barrel and that they cannot pay.
He said the governors’ comments may have been occasioned by the unbridled corruption and mismanagement of public funds by the governors themselves. He reiterated that the minimum wage was a product of tripartite meetings involving government at all levels, employers (through Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), and organised labour.
“They (state governments) cannot use our collective wealth on their electioneering campaigns, payment of their children’s school fees abroad, foreign medical tourism, etc. only to come tell us they cannot pay salaries because the price of oil has dropped. They are not serious,” Kaigama said.
He said TUC’s position was that the searchlight beamed on the arms deal scam should be extended to board members of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), who served for only five years and have set aside N2.7 billion for themselves, whereas they offered nothing but a privatisation that has produced nothing but darkness.
“Nigeria has enough money to maintain its roads; we do not need toll gates that will only end up making the so-called big boys richer at the expense of everyone else,” Kaigama said.
In a statement on Monday, this week, ASCSN Secretary-General Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal expressed sadness that Nigerian governors who have not deemed it fit to reduce their humongous salaries and allowances were bent on jettisoning the N18,000 monthly minimum wage so that they could begin to pay as low as N5,000 monthly to civil servants.
The union regretted that: “Given the current high cost of living, the N18,000 monthly minimum wage cannot even last the average worker one week yet, the governors are bent on reducing it This is very unfortunate because these governors allocate to themselves, on the average, N1 billion monthly as security vote and spend nothing less than N18,000 daily to feed one of their animal pets or buy recharge cards for one of their children, or, worse still, for one of their numerous girl friends.”
The ASCSN pointed out that there is no state that does not have natural resources, but instead of harnessing them they (governors) prefer to wait for monthly handouts and now bailouts from Abuja to administer their states.
It stressed that if the state governments could reduce wastages, tackle corruption and moderate their greed, there would be more than enough money to pay enhanced minimum wage and carry out meaningful development in their states.
ASCSN advised the governors, who are tired of governance because of the fall in revenue allocation and downward slide in the price of oil in the international market, to resign immediately and allow more serious-minded individuals, who are prepared to harness resources of the states for the benefit of the people, including workers, to take up the mantle of leadership.