Exceptional arguments against the minimum wage

Eze Onyekpere

censoj@gmail.com; 08127235995

The tripartite negotiations on the national minimum wage
involving the government, private sector employers and the labour
unions have thrown up fundamental issues of governance. The
disputations question the basis of the continued existence of
government in Nigeria.

Many posers are raised: Why should the average person continue
to pledge loyalty to a government that fails to recognise their
right to exist, even if on the fringes and margins of society? It
is a fundamental aphorism that the state exists to protect the
security and welfare of the people. Laws and policies are to be
made for the common good, especially the good of the majority
rather than simply catering to the interests of the minority.

First, let us recall that what is being negotiated is not the
maximum wage payable to employees in Nigeria, it is the minimum
wage, the morality of the depths and not the morality of the
heights. It is the minimum standard below which no state or
employee is allowed to derogate from. So, listening to governors
and commentators who are raising the issue of federalism as the
reason why the Federal Government should not be legislating on the
minimum wage, you either see ignorance or deliberate mischief. The
legislation on minimum wage does not state that every employee
should pay the minimum; they can go higher. Yes, wages should be
deregulated according to the ability of states, local governments
and generally, employers to pay. But the same, rather silly
argument in the circumstances, is not used when the Revenue
Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission is given the
constitutional power to fix and has indeed fixed a uniform salary
scale for all governors, legislators, judicial officers and
political office holders across the states, no matter their
federation account allocation and or internally generated revenue.
They have all been collecting this uniform pay structure and yet,
they raise this argument when it is the turn of workers to ask for
a living wage!

Virtually every Nigerian governor collects security votes
exceeding N200m every month and simply pockets the money and
accounts to no one but his dead conscience. The security votes of
the 29 states (no data exist for seven states) from 2015-2017 gave
an annual average of $579,823,187 (N208.8bn). The governor hires a
retinue of aides who do no work that adds value to the state but
pays them jumbo salaries. They are never owed and they receive the
remuneration at fixed dates in the month. The governors go on long
convoys of not less than 15 vehicles and generally live very
affluent lives which ideally should only be lived by
multi-billionaires who sweat for money. The N13.5m running cost of
senators can pay 750 Nigerians the minimum wage of N18,000 each.
And this is remuneration unknown to Nigerian laws and policies.
While we focus attention on the jumbo pay of legislators, the
ministers and appointed aides at the federal level make a kill out
of the treasury. If you ask them, they will point to the approved
RAMFAC salary but they live lifestyles that cannot be paid for by
the official remuneration. Can society make progress with such
impunity founded on hypocrisy?

The workers are simply asking for about $80 at the rate of N365
to 1USD. The news that employers of labour, especially the state
governors claim that they are not able to pay the new minimum wage
is simply the product of warped and wicked minds suffering from
exceptional depravity. Burkina Faso pays a minimum wage of $138;
Chad- $239, Tanzania-$149; Ghana-$128; Kenya-$331; Senegal – $148;
Algeria – $531 and South Africa – $517. Yet, we claim to be the
giant of Africa. There is therefore no reason for workers to accept
this madness, especially state level employers who are bent of
dehumanising Nigerian workers.

Organised labour should utilise this opportunity to launch and
mount a blistering campaign, organise rallies while politicians are
organising theirs, against any state governor who claims he cannot
pay the new minimum wage and ask the electorate to reject such
warped minds. Such a campaign should also extend to any governor
who is owing arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuities. It would
be suicidal for labour to allow such persons to come back as
governors. How in all honesty can someone insist on leading a state
when he lacks leadership qualities? Leading a people without a
moral compass? Holding the led in disdain and displaying the
exceptional depravity of stealing what they do not need. The time
for this bunch of insensitive people is up and all men and women of
goodwill should join hands to chase these crazy men out of
leadership positions. Can any of these governors swear in all
honesty that refusing to pay workers’ salaries is a product of lack
of resources? How come there is self-evident inflation of
contracts, mismanagement and stealing of available resources?

Let the governors be faithful over the little they have at their
disposal and show utmost transparency and accountability. Men are
caught on video stealing public resources and all they do is to use
shadow groups and run to court to stop legislative investigations
sanctioned by the constitution. A bishop comes to court with an
affidavit showing the quantum of resources stolen by a former
governor who is now a party chairman and the ex-governor says, no
shaking. A former Plateau State governor, Joshua Dariye, is in jail
for stealing and many more will go to jail while those currently
sitting as governors cannot account for the resources given to them
to manage

Enter the pseudo-intellectuals who will argue that an increase
in the minimum wage will lead to inflation. But inflation is not
induced when someone steals billions, to every one’s knowledge.
Inflation is only a product of when people’s suffering is about to
be alienated. Even if prices of goods will go up, it is a product
of the noise and reluctance of government and employers to do the
right thing. They give traders and the common man on the street the
impression that so much money is about to be made available to
employees when the salary movement is from N18,000 to N30,000 – a
mere increase of N12,000. Tell, me, what can N12,000 buy in the
economy of today?

Dear organised labour, the ball is in your court, no one will
give Nigerian workers their rights if you fail to utilise this
historic opportunity of the minimum wage agitation to guarantee
their rights to a livable wage. In the process, you will raise a
structured discourse of Nigeria’s public expenditure management,
plug the leaks and run a country on the basis of evidence and
reason, rather than the current authority stealing going on in the
name of governance. Our current leaders are suffering from
exceptional depravity; they must not be allowed to continue.
Nigerian workers have a right to determine their destiny!

Related