Adams Oshiomhole, national
chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says governors can meet the
demands of workers.
The organised labour is currently
fighting for an upward review of workers pay from N18,000 to N30,000.
While labour is insisting on
N30,000, Abdulaziz Yari, chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, had said
apart from Lagos and Rivers, any state which attempts to pay N30,000 would go
bankrupt.
He said the only condition for
N30,000 minimum wage is if the workforce is reduced.
But Oshiomhole, a former
president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said as a governor, he told his
colleagues that payment of salaries was no burden, but a means of enhancing the
development potential of the state.
Oshiomhole, who governed Edo
state between 2008 and 2016, said that the country’s major problem is stealing
of public resources.
“My views are clear, that payment
of wages is not an act of kindness for an employer to pay the employees’ wages
at the end of the month. Even the Holy Bible says that the labourer is entitled
to his wages”, Oshiomhole said on a television programme, according to The
Nation.
“I think, again, this is where
President Buhari stands out clearly. He has publicly asked public sector
employers; how do you sleep when you have not paid your employers for one year?
But he did not stop at lamenting it, he went on to provide the much- talked
about bailout fund and said, ‘please use this money to pay your workers and pay
pension arrears’..
“As for my views on the minimum
wage, I tried to deal with it as a governor. I told my colleagues then that
wage is not a burden in the society. In economics, when people work and get
paid, purchasing power is enhanced and because purchasing power is enhanced
producers will respond to that by seeking to produce more goods and services.
And in the process they will recruit more hands.
“I remember some people calling
me to ask how you will pay it. I am on record of having paid it and as we speak
my successor in office is paying it. I do not agree with those who says Nigeria
cannot afford a more realistic minimum wage.
“My being in government or now
chairman of a party cannot change what I believe in. I know that no nation has
enough to meet the greed of leaders but nations have enough to meet basic needs
of their people.
“The real problem in the public
sector is money being stolen in the name of salaries; I found it embarrassing
when we talk about ghost workers. And I ask the question who counts ghosts, it
is only in Nigeria that ghosts are known. The labourer deserves its wage; the
primary purpose of government is the welfare of its people. So we must pay
wages as at when due.”
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