Workers in the country, today, join the rest of the world to celebrate the May Day, but it is definitely a celebration without much to show for Nigerian workers as they have not had it rosy since the inception of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. The country’s job crisis may have reached its tipping point in the last one year, with the unprecedented loss of jobs across the sectors in recent times.
Osu, who made the call in a statement in Lagos at the weekend, also appealed to youths not to be ashamed of using their hands saying, “Whatever your hands find to do, do it with pride and God will reward you accordingly.”
Workers in the states, as well as those in federal ministries, agencies and commissions have had to contend with unpaid salaries, as no fewer than 27 state governments have been unable to pay their respective workers’ salaries, some owing up to nine months, including retirement benefits. In the midst of the unpaid salaries, the value of the naira crashed by over 100 per cent in the parallel market, causing rises in the prices of most consumables, both made in Nigeria and imported items, far beyond the reach of the ordinary worker.
As if the damage done by that to the purchasing power of the worker is not enough, the nation also ran into scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), since October last year, making the cost of transportation unbearable and further driving the prices of goods and services up. The National Bureau of Statistic, in its recent first quarter 2016 report, said that the inflation has jumped to about 12.8 per cent of the GDP, the highest in four years. Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation rate, recorded a sharp rise for the second consecutive month in March, peaking at 12.8 per cent yearon- year up from the 11.4 per cent recorded in the preceding month.
The latest rate, which represents the highest since July 2012, was spurred by faster increases across all divisions, which contribute to the index The N338 billion bailout released to 19 state governments by the Federal Government in September 2015, to pay their workers’ salaries, might have only made very minimal difference in the sad state of the workers as President Buhari, early this week, stated that about a third of the states are still owing their workers despite the bailout extended to them, while some of the workers are on half salaries.
Some of the state governors later confessed that they will no longer be able to pay the N18, 000 minimum wage. But the Deputy President of the Comrade Ayuba Wabb-led Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Chairman of the 2016 May Day committee, Comrade Peters Adeyemi, said at a pre-May Day press conference in Abuja that states that had refused to pay the N18, 000 were acting against the laws of the land, pointing out that the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) will not fold their hands and watch those states act against the law.
Meanwhile, what would have been a silver lining for the workers which came last Friday might after all be wishful thinking with the discordant tunes being sang by the divided NLC. The Joe Ajero-led faction of the union, at the end of its Executive Committee Meeting in Port Harcourt on Friday, said he has been mandated to demand a N90, 000 minimum wage. Comrade Ajero threatened to call out union members on a strike if employers fail to pay the new minimum wage. Meanwhile, the Comrade Ayuba Wabba-led faction and the Trade Union Congress, the same day in Abuja, confirmed that they have proposed a new minimum wage of N56, 000 for civil servants on the payroll of the Federal Government. In making the proposal, Wabba said the Union was not deterred by the complaint by some state governors that they cannot pay the current N18,000 minimum wage, saying the economic crisis the country is passing through has eroded the purchasing power of workers. He noted that when the N18,000 minimum wage act was signed into law in March 2011 by former President Goodluck Jonathan, the naira was exchanging at N110 to US$1.
He said: “As at today, the value of the naira to the dollar has been reduced; and there are the issues of inflation and purchasing power, among others to contend with.” Comrade Wabba called on the Federal Government to ensure that the issue of the national minimum wage was urgently taken on board as a way of fighting corruption in the country. The NLC President said that workers needed to be empowered financially to have the purchasing power to buy what they would need to survive. “If manufacturers are producing and nobody is buying, the economy will be at a standstill because people lack the purchasing power to buy.”
