By Adadareporters
The reason most state governors and the federal government are reluctant to implement the N70,000 new minimum is because votes no longer count during elections in Nigeria.
This is the view of the chairman, Trade Union Congress, Enugu State, Comrade Ben Asogwa.
Asogwa, speaking during a programme in Enugu, said the Oshiomhole era as NLC president was dreaded by politicians because they did not want to jeorpadise their electoral chances during voting.
According to him, “We are all stakeholders in this burning Nigeria. The era of Adams Oshiomhole as labour leader witnessed politicians listening to Labour because of fear to lose electoral seats. But we have gotten to a point where Nigerian leaders win without votes. The current negligence on Labour by the government is because the system is corrupt. They don’t care if we vote or not because votes no longer count.”
On the directive of the Nigeria Labour Congress on its members to commence nationwide strike from December 1, 2024 should the implementation of the new minimum wage fail to be accelerated across the federation, the TUC chairman said, “Some states are behaving as if they’ve not woken from sleep. What is even N70,000 considering the nation’s current economic realities? We accepted the new minimum wage even when it is not realistic. Even the federal government is still discreet on the new wage. The new minimum wage is yet to be captured in salary charts.”
According to him, the procedure of implementing the wage does not factor what he called “consequential adjustments”.
In his view, “If states pronounce minimum wage approvals without consequential implementation, such can’t be called a minimum wage. If you get leaders who are not sincere, that is what you see; they begin to play games.
“Nigeria needs leaders that genuinely understand that they are serving the masses. Labour leaders are the only voices of the people in Nigeria. Our so-called activists have hidden to get their own national cake.”
Our correspondent reports that many states in the federation are yet to begin the implementation of the new minimum wage which government and the Organized Labour entered into.
