IT appears that May Day, otherwise called Workers’ Day, is now commonly perceived as a mere holiday by Nigerians in general. It is fast becoming a crass opportunity for some leaders of the organised labour to gloat, and for those in government to engage in grandstanding. What ought to be a moment of sober reflection and a celebration of the strides of workers, and which many had hitherto eagerly looked forward to, has now become more or less a charade. In the last couple of years, governmental rhetoric has all but subsumed workers’ legitimate demands: fair wealth distribution, housing benefits, free and quality health services, and enhanced consumer rights.
The challenges confronting Nigerian workers today are huge and scary, in particular the regular job losses. In its Labour Force Statistics (Vol. 2) Employment by Sector Report, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) estimated that about 7.5 million job losses were recorded between January 2016 and December 30, 2017. In the same period, the number of the underemployed in Nigeria rose to 69.09 million, while the businesses of 77.55 million of the entire 85.1 million Nigerian labour population involved in one economic activity or another for at least an hour a week, was almost subdued by an asphyxiating business environment.
A steady decline in the manufacturing sector aggravated by awful energy cuts and a befuddling foreign exchange ratio has culminated in forceful downsizing of workers in the industrial subdivision of the economy. Scarcity of foreign exchange, infrastructure deficit, high banking charges and lack of raw materials have led to about 272 firms going down, with a few others still managing to engage in scrappy operations, applying very stringent measures such as reducing the staff strength, cutting production and reducing workers’ remuneration package.
Against this backdrop, the government ought to have taken quick action on the demand for a new national minimum wage to, among other vital interventions, cushion the agonies and pains of workers. The average Nigerian worker can hardly afford the basic necessities of life. The simple logic is that it will be impossible for productivity to increase without a workforce motivated through regular payment of salaries and allowances. Rent, school fees, transport fare, healthcare charges and other basic things have made a mincemeat of the purchasing power of workers and indeed all Nigerians. And this year’s May Day celebration should have been a veritable opportunity to unveil a reasonable wage package to restore confidence and erase the grimaces on the faces of Nigerian workers. Governments at all levels have been insensitive to workers’ welfare.
Having dithered all along, the government should have announced a new minimum wage to redeem its image and save the workers from unending frustration and despondency. It cannot continue to play the ostrich since it has all the details on the economy. A system where salaries cannot sustain people will ultimately breed thieves, beggars, social deviants and miscreants. People need to earn what they can survive on. The galloping inflation resulting from unfavourable economic indices such as the ballooning exchange rate has rendered impotent, unrealistic and outdated, the N18,000 minimum wage regime currently being implemented across the country. Yet, only an inspired and motivated labour force can be productive. Currently, Nigerians workers, like the majority of the country’s population, still largely provide their own electricity, water, security, housing and healthcare. Getting to work is a problem on its own, and so is educating their children.
The government’s proclamation that it will unveil a new national minimum wage by September borders on political sophistry. It is utterly obtuse, particularly since the tripartite committee constituted to harmonise the positions of all critical stakeholders has since done its job. The government must unveil a new minimum wage without any further delay. The nation does not need to continue treading the path of frosty government/labour relations. Whatever is done at the threshold of another general election in the country will be interpreted as a Greek gift.
and then