Nigerian Labour Congress
Our Nigerian Labour Congress is at it again. They’ve called out workers on strike to compel the Federal Government to meet up their demands. They are asking for an increase of minimum wage from N18,ooo.oo to N50,000.00
This is not the first time such a request is being made. Personally I don’t support any call for civil disobedience as it grounds our economy and the masses always bear the brunt! However, it’s an option that’s available and legal…so I respect their decision.
But what are our thoughts?
“Minimum Wage: Is it more money that workers need or that the money they have buys more things?” I asked my friends on Facebook.
“Don’t you think such an increase would give rise to increase in price of other basic things? What then becomes of people that don’t have access to the current minimum wage before we even consider an increase?“ I further asked.
And again “I’m just wondering if that increase would indeed make the economy bearable for the common man. Is the common man in paid employment?”
“Have we considered the spiral effect this demand would have? Have we considered that such an increase is another quick fix which may not be in our best interest?
“Why don’t we consider the more tedious path of value creation?”
I got interesting and insightful contributions, but I would share a bit:
Ibiere Akpana said “My worry is that no one wants to make the hard choices. Now that they are clamoring for an impossible minimum wage, perhaps it is time for the government to also address the issue of the overbloated public sector and the capacity therein. That way we can have a lean mean efficient (hopefully) and reasonably well paid public sector.”
“We all are concerned about the general malaise in the service which transcends the Nigerian society. A competent and productive service is what we all desire. We also hope for a better Nigeria. Work in progress. Sister we still need a working wage. While not attributing corruption to poor salaries, poor renumeration is an enabler of corruption. Food for thought ‘not all politicians are productive, but they are well remunerated’” said Tetshoma
What do you think?
“I like Onene’s articles because they are usually short and straight to the point.
Increasing minimum wage abruptly does not help any nation. That was where Sowore (the Sahara Reporter Presidential aspirant) lost me.
I will echo the point that our political structure is overbloated, unproductive, wasteful, ineffective, and ridiculously expensive for a nation where nearly half of its population like on less than N360/day.
Firstly, the cost of governance needs to be axed down (trimming would not be sufficient). Then the ministries need to be overhauled so that they are truly productive.
What is the benefit of the Ministry of Education when paying high private school fees is the norm. Ministry of Water Resources, over 50 million Nigerians have no portable water 💦 and our communities are flooded because of non-existing water channels.
By overhaul, I mean reducing the number of workers in the Ministries with qualified people that are properly paid so that they can start working for Nigerians. A productive person will generate more than his wages. In a modern world, Messengers and Clerks are no longer required, the current minimum wage will disappear naturally.
The ineffectiveness of government is what has eroded the value of wages and salaries.”
Anthony Ariyo
Good Work!!!!
“I never saw it in this light, Actually what is needed is that the money in hand buys more and not that the money in hand be increased.
Value of a fiat is totally a function of what it can be used to accomplish and not in the amount itself. If 18k can get me a bag of rice and 50k does same, then both sum has same market value.
Our value system is where the problem lies, little or no market control, the consumers are in most cases at the mercy of the producers and the government who should have set a cap on pricing can’t do that because too often a time the producers usually create the enabling environment for their business to make profit, say for instance, if I have to generate my own power to run a printing press during the waking hours of my business, how do you expect me to listen when same person that should have given me power and failed fix a price? If he has first failed in his responsibility to give me what is required of him he automatically relinguishes his authority to me, and if I turn out to be a ruthless capitalist like most of us are, then the end consumers would bear the blunt of the cascading failure and opportunistic greed. It’s a total overhaul we need.“ Okoro Gbubemi Moses
I read minimum wage is now N24,000.
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