Minimum wage: Kogi NLC calls for negotiation

The Kogi State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), Comrade Onuh Edoka has called on the government to come back to the negotiation table with workers to resolve the lingering non-implementation of the consequential adjusted minimum wage of thirty thousand naira.

Edoka who gave the charge in Lokoja during National Regular Meeting of Schools and Colleges Trade Groups also called on the Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello to sack the Head of Service (HOS) Mrs Deborah Ogunmola whom he said has exceeded the 35 years mark for retirement.

He decried the alarming rate of insecurity, corruption and unemployment that have made country the caricature of many nations.

The labour leader decried the insincere attitude of the government to the minimum wage negotiation which for many times was truncated and called on the government to meet the labour for final discussion on the issue.

Edoka who described the thirty thousand naira as below the poverty line considering the present exchange rate which hovers between #460 and #470 to a dollar bringing the minimum wage earnings to $63 which is considered unbelievable in other climes of our equal status” He said.

He also called on the government to sack the Head of Service (HOS) Mrs Deborah Ogunmola whom he said has exceeded the 35 years mark for retirement.

He explained that keeping the HOS in service when she should have retired two years ago is a disservice to the qualified and hardworking staff which her non-retirement has killed their ambitions of reaching the pinnacle of their careers.

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“There are many permanent secretaries and other qualified civil servants who can do the job even better. Her remaining in service after her expected years of retirement is a disservice to the civil service.

“What we are saying is for the government to see reasons with workers and do the needful by allowing her to commence her retirement. We don’t want industrial unrest that will result from the anomaly.” He solicited.

While thanking the government for doing its best to meet the demands of works appeal to him not to rest on his oars until major disputed issues are resolved.

Earlier, the chairman of Kogi State council of Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Allied Institutions (NASU) Comrade Sunday Ola Reuben tasked president Buhari to tame the two monsters of insecurity and corruption with all the sincerity it deserves before all Nigerians become victims.

He lamented at the insecurity in the land which has reached its apogee that some highly placed Nigerians including governors could not travel outside their domain for fears of being kidnapped or attacked by hoodlums.

The labour leader, however, called on the President Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies to go back to the drawing board to kill the monster or risk having a country that will be synonymous with brute and anarchy.

According to him the alarming rate of insecurity in the country is unbearable, “imagine a country where a governor would not be able to travel outside his state for the fear of being attacked. The country is passing through a very turbulent period in her history, where high-level corruption and unabated unemployment is the order of the day.

“Every day, news reaching citizenry is of ominous proportions. Our people are being kidnapped even on the farms and their houses. Scores are being murders at cold blood. Corruption has become a norm in our nation as billions of naira are being looted and frittered abroad.” He lamented.

He described as worrisome the ugly trend across the country in which Nigerians are wallowing in abject poverty in the midst of abundant human and natural resources.

Meanwhile, he commended Governor Yahaya Bello for his commitment to the welfare and wellbeing of the state workers even in the face of dwindling resources.

He called on his members in the state to give their support to the government to deliver more dividends of democracy.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE