‘N30,000 minimum wage not even enough,’ Dogara backs workers

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has argued that the N30,000 minimum wage labour unions are clamouring for is not enough for Nigerian workers.

After a meeting of the Council of State last week, the Presidency announced a new minimum wage of N27,000. It subsequently forwarded the amount to the National Assembly for approval.

Labour unions, however, have continued to kick against the approved sum, insisting that Nigerian workers were not going to accept any amount short of N30,000.

But speaking at the National Assembly during a public hearing on the New Minimum Wage organised by the House Ad-Hoc Committee on New Minimum Wage, 2019, Dogara argued that N30, 000 naira minimum wage is not enough because it “can barely feed a small family unit.”

He noted that the two focal points that must be given priority by government are poverty and corruption because “while the former, caused mainly by underemployment and unemployment, is a threat to democracy, the latter fundamentally undermines democratic institutions and values.”

The Speaker, therefore, proposed for a more reasonable living wage that will not only provide for basic needs of the workers but also enable them to make provisions for themselves that will lift them out of poverty and lead to a reduction in corruption.

He explained that poverty as a threat to democracy is evident in vote buying and in the use of money to compromise electoral and security officials during elections, thereby subverting the will of the people on account of the sense of despondency and powerlessness that their lack breeds, and therefore, making them ever ready tools in the hands of tyrants and demagogues, who in the course of history, have always found it easy to mobilise for the purposes of subverting democratic Institutions.

“While we are not oblivious of the current economic downturn and the dwindling revenue of government, we cannot also be blind to the fact that all economic indices indicate that even the 30,000 Naira Minimum Wage that Labour is asking for is not enough to sustain a small family unit.

“The nation may not have enough to satisfy the minimum demands of the Nigerian worker, but as a nation, we need to set our economic priorities right and ensure that we dignify our workers by making allowance for their minimum comfort. I know of no alternative if we hope to up the productivity level of our workforce.

“It is said that the promise of democracy is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. According to Thomas Jefferson, these are God given rights. Therefore, it is not enough to merely be alive and free, one must also be engaged in the pursuit of happiness in order to enjoy the promise of democracy. If that is the case, can we say that Nigerian workers are enjoying the promise of democracy? Can we say that millions of our youth who roam the streets daily in search of non-existing jobs are enjoying the promise of democracy? Absolutely, no. This is because, although they are alive and free, they lack the means with which to pursue happiness.

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“While the workers are underemployed, the latter are unemployed. So as a country, we are battling twin evils, namely: underemployment, which is as grave a problem, as unemployment. Dr King Jnr aptly summed it up when he said, while talking about underemployment in America, that ‘Most of the poverty-stricken people of America are persons who are working every day, and they end up getting part-time wages for full-time work.’ Of course America has moved on since Dr King’s time. We must make Nigeria move on in our time.

“I have said before that poverty is the greatest threat to our democracy. Those who doubted me have seen that threat manifest itself in vote buying and in the use of money to compromise electoral and security officials during elections. On account of the sense of despondency and powerlessness that poverty breeds amongst the poor, the poor have and will always remain ever ready tools in the hands of tyrants and demagogues, who in the course of history, have always found it easy to mobilize for the purposes of subverting democratic institutions. Since underemployment and unemployment are bedmates of poverty, eliminating them must be the focal point of government’s policies,” he said.

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