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SOWORE: If senators’ N13.5m hasn’t caused inflation, why will N100,000 to a worker do so?

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SOWORE: If senators’ N13.5m hasn’t caused inflation, why will N100,000 to a worker do so?

A presidential aspirant of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has argued that raising minimum wage of workers in the country’s civil service would not cause inflation since the N13.5 million each senator receives has not worsened the macro-economic variable.

Sowore made this disclosure during an interview with Ripples Nigeria on Monday in Lagos in the series of interactions with presidential aspirants ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The presidential aspirant was responding to a question on the possible implications of increasing workers’ minimum wage by over 455 percent to N100,000.

His argument came against the backdrop of controversy surrounding his plan to raise minimum wage from N18,000. Some economic analysts have opined that such development could increase the liquidity in the system and cause a surge in headline inflation.

In fact, in July the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in its Monetary Committee Policy meeting had expressed worry over the likelihood of a reversal in Nigeria’s inflation rate due to rising liquidity in the nation’s economy ahead of the 2019 polls.

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In line with CBN’s fears, the Nigerian inflation rate, which is the rate at which the prices of goods and service are rising in the country, had in August risen for the first time after recording eighteen consecutive months of decline from 11.14 percent in July to 11.23 percent.

But Sowore maintained that the current minimum wage of N18,000 being paid to workers was criminal, stressing that the amount could not sustain a Nigerian worker.

“To pay anybody N18,000 per month is criminal, it’s criminal against workers,” he said.

According to him, the upward review would boost the purchasing power of average Nigerians and spur growth in the nation.

“We are here deceiving ourselves that our country will somehow climb out of the doldrum economically,” he explained.

The presidential aspirant queried that “If we don’t invest in our people, if we don’t pay the right wages so that they can also compete with other people, we don’t incentivise them and make them feel like human beings, who on earth can live on N18,000 per month?

“If you want to make minimum wage of N18,000 attractive, pay senators you will see how far and how quick they will increase the minimum wage.”

Sowore, who alleged that some subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission (NNPC) have not been remitting correct revenue figures into the Treasury Single Account (TSA), assured that he would restore transparency in the state oil firm if he emerges the president.

 

 

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