Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara has declared that N30,000 monthly salary was
not enough as minimum wage.
According to him, since the
National Assembly will need to go on a short recess for the purpose of the
general elections, the lawmakers will proceed with further legislative actions
on the matter at plenary on Tuesday.
Speaking on Monday at the
National Assembly during a public hearing on the New Minimum Wage organised by
the House Ad-Hoc Committee on New Minimum Wage, 2019, Dogara noted that the two
focal points that must be given priority by government are poverty and corruption
because while the former, caused mainly by underemployment and unemployment, is
a threat to democracy, the latter fundamentally undermines democratic
institutions and values.
Dogara proposed a more reasonable
living wage that will not only provide for basic needs of the workers but also
enable them to make provisions for themselves that will lift them out of
poverty and lead to a reduction in corruption.
The speaker stated, “While we are
not oblivious of the current economic downturn and the dwindling revenue of
Government, we cannot also be blind to the fact that all economic indices
indicate that even the 30,000 Naira Minimum Wage that Labour is asking for is
not enough to sustain a small family unit.
“It is said that the promise of
democracy is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. According to Thomas
Jefferson, these are God-given rights. Therefore, it is not enough to merely be
alive and free, one must also be engaged in the pursuit of happiness in order
to enjoy the promise of democracy. If that is the case, can we say that
Nigerian workers are enjoying the promise of democracy?
“Can we say that millions of our
youth who roam the streets daily in search of non-existing jobs are enjoying
the promise of democracy? Absolutely, no. This is because, although they are
alive and free, they lack the means with which to pursue happiness. While the
workers are underemployed, the latter are unemployed.
“So as a country, we are battling
twin evils, namely: underemployment, which is as grave a problem, as
unemployment.
“I have said before that poverty
is the greatest threat to our democracy. Those who doubted me have seen that
threat manifest itself in vote buying and in the use of money to compromise electoral
and security officials during elections.
“On account of the sense of
despondency and powerlessness that poverty breeds amongst the poor, the poor
have and will always remain ever ready tools in the hands of tyrants and
demagogues, who in the course of history, have always found it easy to mobilize
for the purposes of subverting democratic Institutions.
“Since underemployment and
unemployment are bedmates of poverty, eliminating them must be the focal point
of government’s policies.
“The next evil is corruption. It
is not in doubt that corruption fundamentally undermines democratic
institutions and values. Corruption affects the poor most because they depend
more on the government for support.
“How then do we fight corruption
from the roots rather than dealing with its symptoms as is currently the case?
The answer is for us to begin to pay workers living wage, not minimum wage.
“When we do not pay living wage,
we cannot tame corruption. When workers take home is not enough to take them
home, the temptation for them to cut corners in order to get home will always
be there.
“Workers keep and process our
national wealth and the only way to insulate them from the temptation to want
to help themselves to it, is to ensure they are well remunerated. It is not in
contention that it is a mean job to muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.
“Leaving workers to their
temptations is dangerous unless we can show that they are greater than Oscar
Wilde, who in his vintage wicked wit, proclaimed, “I can resist everything
except temptation”.
“That we cannot pay living wage
in a nation that represents a major promise for economic prosperity in the
world speaks to the bane of our leadership. In order to reverse these tragic
narratives, we must invest in proactive and innovative leadership not the
reactive leadership model that we practised all this while. Reality is, I am
not a believer in minimum wage although it is a constitutional issue and the
practice in many nations.
“Therefore, I cannot wait for
that Nigeria to emerge wherein workers are paid wages that would not only take
them home but have a portion to spare in savings in order to pursue happiness
and give their children the training that they could ever dream of. That should
be our national goal going forward if we hope to ever make it to the club of
elite nations.
“If we do not ever make it to the
point where we can have a conversation about Economic justice, it would not be
because it’s impossible to achieve but because we lack the right leadership. We
have talked about ending so many things in Nigeria, now is the time to talk
about creating wealth and ending poverty, and those who bear the burden of the
nation must be the first beneficiaries.”
He said the House of
Representatives is giving accelerated consideration to the very crucial Bill to
forestall the threat by the labour force to go on strike and because it is long
overdue since the current National Minimum Wage, which was fixed in 2011, has
become unrealistic due to supervening developments in the nation.”
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