President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Mr. Joe Ajaero, and Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, at this year's annual Vanguard Economic Discourse, traded words over Organised Labour's N615,000 minimum wage demand which has been reduced to N497,000.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Mr. Joe Ajaero, and Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, at this year's annual Vanguard Economic Discourse, traded words over Organised Labour 's N615,000 minimum wage demand which has been reduced to N497,000.
He said:"From all that we have been discussing here, there is a benchmark which is the dollar; a common factor we use. The cost of living index determines the wages, I want you to benchmark it with probably a bag of rice, which is about N84,000 today. "Ordinarily, I would have asked you to convert this money to dollars and you will see that it translates to about $20 and that is the least all over the world.If you match that with Mr President's position that he is going to give Nigerians a living wage, and a living wage, in actual fact is different from a minimum wage.
"It is a real wage that grows the economy because when workers earn, they purchase. When you increase the purchasing power of workers, the economy will grow and you have proper productivity. "Whether workers or ordinary citizens, if you are talking of reserves, saving money and economic policies that are forcing people into poverty, how do you reconcile it because one of the eight-point agenda of the President is to eradicate poverty?
"If you do this, even with the cost of PMS then, the cost of transportation will go down and prices of other things will stop moving. However, the government preferred to have abortions before pregnancy. "Some of the reserves built in the past were looted. If you identify that point of having billions and billions being looted by people, you can't build reserves in the face of corruption. It is not possible. That is one vital point. Now that oil prices are going up, you cannot continue to refine abroad."The period you are supposed to make money for your growth from oil, you are just importing refined products because no refinery is working in Nigeria, nothing is functioning.
"We cannot quickly forget the Justice Okigbo commission report on $12.4 billion missing oil windfall and whatnot. In this country, even when they take a loan, the loan disappears. Why can't we come out openly and discuss our problem? And look at the hitches which corruption is causing to proffer solutions.
And the data is here, inflation in 2019 was 11.4 per cent. Inflation in 2020, the year after, came down to six per cent. "Speaking about minimum wage, productivity in the US and our productivity in Nigeria are two different things. That is one. "Look at the losses they have been declaring and these companies that are going to borrow money at higher interest rates are still going to pay higher minimum wage. We are very concerned about the growth of our investment."Meanwhile, the Presidency has said the N497,000 demand by organized labour as the new minimum wage is unrealistic and advised labour to be serious in its demand.
"We have a bloated civil service at all levels. The government is keeping them as a social service because it doesn't have other jobs for them. "There are still self-employed people, people who are doing their businesses to whom the government has responsibility to do roads, provide healthcare, provide education and others. So, labour should be realistic.
"I read a few days ago that the Zamfara State government, which failed to pay the N30,000 current minimum wage, announced that they will pay. If some states have not paid the minimum wage announced by President Muhammadu Buhari five years ago, it is an indication that the states will also fail to pay the new minimum wage. So labour needs to be realistic.
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