Avert impending labour strike, MMWG urges FG

The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMWG) has urged the Federal Government to address the lingering controversy over the issue of N30,000 minimum wage for workers.

It said this was necessary to prevent the labour unions from going on another nationwide strike being planned to commence on Wednesday October 16.

In a statement by its national coordinator, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, the MMWG, however, described the role of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr, Chris Ngige, as disruptive to the progress of negotiations between workers and the government.

“For Dr Chris Ngige to opine that if the Federal Government would pay the new minimum wage, workers would be retrenched is, to say the least, insensitive and uncharitable,” it noted.

But the group commended the vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, for rising to the task of resolving the crisis on minimum wage in the country and appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to allow his deputy to finish the rest of the assignment on the minimum wage issue in the interest of industrial peace.

“By now, a new salary table for public sector workers ought to have been out since April but because the ministers were not sworn in until recently, the delay in getting this done made it necessary for some states to announce the commencement of their own payments,” MMWG noted.

Also, the group commended the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Shuaibu Ibrahim, for approving the use of veil by interested female corps members.

It noted that the veil, popularly referred to as hijab, was allowed for ladies in military and police in civilised countries like the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States of America.

It called on the NYSC to watch out for some unruly senior staff members who might want to disobey the guideline by harassing female members of the corps who chose to use the veil.

“We have always wondered what concerns a non-Muslim about the mode of dressing of a Muslim and what denial of right is being felt by those condemning the use of hijab. It must be stated here that up to now, Muslim female corpers have been molested, harassed and, in some cases, persecuted by some fanatical Christian senior staff members for wearing hijab. This must stop and any staff member found doing that anywhere in this country must be disciplined accordingly.

“It is our hope that with the good step taken by the NYSC, other federal establishments that deny their female workers the use of this modest form of dressing would stop the discrimination henceforth, as it borders on the fundamental human rights of the users as guaranteed in the Nigerian constitution,” MMWG said.

Similarly, the group called on the Kwara State government to stem the tide of religious intolerance and fanaticism in all public schools in the state.