The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has slammed the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for encouraging organised labour not to settle for anything less than N120,000 as the minimum wage.
According to Ibrahm Abdullahi, the PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, in an interview with newsmen, the Federal Government had no excuse not to pay as much.
He stated that since the government can afford to be extravagant with public funds, it should be able to pay a reasonable minimum wage.
“The back and forth with the labour leaders is hypocritical of the government. They didn’t mean well for Nigerians from the word go, even when they started engaging the NLC. It was not an intended policy direction. It was something that was made as a smokescreen to continue to deceive the Nigerian workers and, of course, the nation.
“With the lies the APC is telling us, if they can afford to construct a road for N3tn, if they can afford to do all this jamboree if they can afford to take 1,500 government officials out of this country for things that are not important, then I don’t know why, for crying out loud, they should not be able to pay a reasonable minimum wage.
“The reasonable minimum wage Nigeria should take at this moment should be N120,000 or nothing less. If Nigerians cannot be given that as a minimum wage, then we better go on with this strike unending. So that the government will know that some people put them there if they were truly elected,” Abdullahi said.
In response, Bala Ibrahim, APC Publicity Director, accused the PDP of hypocrisy, stating that if the party had won the election, there would be no wage at all to pay workers.
Ibrahim accused the PDP of instigating organised labour against the government and lacking patriotism.
“The PDP is gradually turning into something that will one day question the integrity of the Constitution of Nigeria.
“If the PDP had won the election, believe me, it would have not been a question of minimum wage, there would be no wage at all. So, they said it out of anger, the bitterness of losing an election, and lack of patriotism.”
The APC Publicity Director called on organised labour to be reasonable in their negotiation with the federal government.
He asked them to consider the feelings of 80 percent of the populace while negotiating for workers who are less than 20 percent.
Ibrahim said, “The labour union should engage their sense of reason in negotiation. They should engage their conscience, patriotism, justice, and fairness in negotiation. Nigeria is a country that has more than 250 million people.
“While they are negotiating for the workers who are less than 20 percent of the population, they should also have feelings for the remaining 80 percent of Nigerians who go to the same market with these workers, who have no one to pay them anything, and who are struggling to make ends meet.
“We agree, yes there is hardship in the land, but for God’s sake, when you are going to talk about your people, do so with a sense of equity. What is good for you is good for others. In a country where we have a lot of people who are unemployed, where the resources are not enough to go around, and you’re asking for N500,000 per month! I think that is unethical, unreasonable, and irrational.”
Banks, schools, markets, and other business activities across the country were grounded yesterday due to the nationwide strike declared by organised labour and will seemingly continue in that stead until the strike is called off by Congress.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) had a successful meeting with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, and other government officials on Monday, where a resolution was reached that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is committed to a new minimum wage higher than N60,000.
It was earlier reported that organised labour negotiators had walked out of the meeting for the third time over the refusal by the government to make a new offer beyond N60,000.
They maintained that a minimum wage of N60,000 would not be accepted by the Congress, stressing that Nigerian workers deserve more.
