During the recently suspended strike, Labour literally grounded Nigeria– from airports, hospitals, tertiary institutions, to electricity which has plunged the biggest black nation on earth into total darkness. I am in full, complete and total support of the strike embarked upon by the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress for an upward review of the Federal Government’s proposed minimum wage of N60,000 per month, which was suspended for five days on Tuesday.
Both the NLC and TUC have also demanded that the government reverse the increase in electricity tariff to N65/KWH. When talks broke down, with none of the parties shifting grounds, Labour commenced a strike at midnight on Sunday, June 2, 2024. The Federal Government’s proposed meagre salary is certainly not a living wage in today’s Nigeria. At the current parallel market exchange rate of N1,470 to $1, the wage being conceded by the Federal Government to Labour is a mere $40.82 per month (N60,000) while the NLC and TUC are asking for a whooping N494,000 per month.
By way of comparative analysis with some other countries globally, the monthly minimum wage in the United States is $1,160 ( N1,705,200); the United Kingdom £1,376 (N2,528,950); Canada CA$2,464 (N2,710,400); France £1,539.42 (N2,847,927); Ghana GHC2,904 (N292,548.96); Rwanda RWF56,668(N64,602); South Africa R4,067.2 – R4,412.8 (N322,406.944 – N349,802.656); Botswana P1,168 (N122,056); Germany £1,985.6 (N3,673,360); Australia AUD3531.2 (N3,490,414.64); Kenya is KES15,201 (N172,683.36). In the United Arab Emirates, there is no general minimum wage as it differs from profession to profession. However, for skilled labourers, it is AED5,000 (N2,019,435); people with university degrees AED12,000 (N4,846,644); qualified technicians AED 7,000 (N2,827,209). South Korea is Won 2,010,580 (N2,161,574.558). China differs from city to city. However, Shanghai is RMB2,690 per month (N551,181) and Heilongjiang RMB1,450 (N297,105). Singapore does not prescribe a general minimum wage for all its workers. However, the minimum Singaporean wage is averaged at S$6,792 per month (N7,464,408).
Even though Rwanda and Botswana’s minimum wage per month, which are RWF56,668 (N64,602) and P1,168(N122,056), respectively, appear meagre, the two countries have since put in place social services that cushion the masses’ suffering and put them on a developmental path. Indeed, they are two of the fastest-growing economies not only in Africa but also in the world. We do not have such in Nigeria. Nigeria is perhaps the only country in the world that brazenly defies Isaac Newton’s Law of Motion to the effect that “what goes up must come down.”In Nigeria, once prices of goods go up, they never come down. Are these countries and Nigeria not living on the same Planet Earth?
What is the way forward from this FG-Labour face-off and stalemate? Part of the solution lies in steering a middle course between Labour’s N494,000 per month demand and the Federal Government’s proposal of N60,000 per month. This is more so having regard to the impossibility of the private sector, especially small-scale businesses and private professions, having the capacity and economic wherewithal to pay such an exorbitant wage.
Another solution lies in public office holders making deliberate sacrifices in the midst of public angst and disenchantment by cutting down their ostentatiously vulgar lifestyle of ugly displays of opulence and their sheer exhibition of wealth in mindless convoys of vehicles in the midst of grinding poverty and wretchedness of the masses. The Nigerian people are not happy at all. Anyone who advises the government to the contrary is nothing but a fawner, bootlicker, ego masseur, toady flatterer and clapper.
