ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress is protesting the zero allocation of funds by both chambers of the National Assembly to fuel subsidy in versions of the 2015 Appropriation Bills passed by them.
Addressing a pre-May Day media parley in Abuja on Wednesday, NLC’s Vice President, Peters Adeyemi, described the subsidy removal as joke of the century, lamenting that the lawmakers did not consider its impact on Nigerian workers and the masses in general.
Adeyemi stressed that the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) did not have the mandate of their members to support the removal of the fuel subsidy.
He however admitted that fuel subsidy has been characterized by corruption over the years, following which something needed to be done about it.
The labour leader also took a swipe at the Kogi state governor, Captain Idris Wada, over plans by his administration to cut workers salary by as much as 40 per cent as part of austerity measures in the state.
He challenged the governor to begin the salary cut with himself and as such “lead by example.
“You see, at times some of these government people make pronouncements… it is about talking before thinking. How do you cut workers’ salary when you have not cut your own? Which is more? Is it the workers’ salary or the salary of the governor or those in the Assembly?
“It is just a joke. There’s no way we can accept a situation whereby someone will say he is cutting workers salary, when his own salary is intact. You lead by example; these our governors have not led by example, so there is no way they can cut salary by 40 per cent and we will be romancing them. We are not going to allow that and we see that as part of the joke of the century. It is not going to happen. Take it from us” he added.
Speaking on minimum wage for Nigerian workers, Comrade Adeyemi who said the NLC and TUC would use the occasion of this year’s Workers’ Day to renew the call for the review of National Minimum wage, going by current economic realities that have necessitated a review of the wage. He said: The minimum wage is no longer something to write about. We are already talking before the exit of this administration that our minimum wage is due for a review. If you take a look at the level of our currency depreciation, you will find out that the N18000 minimum wage is no longer anything to write home about.
“If you do arithmetical calculation may be the N18,000 would just be less than N2000 of what used to be minimum wage some years back. The reality that confronts us today is that this minimum wage is no longer anything that you can be proud of. It has been clearly eroded.
“You can’t make workers the sacrificial lamb. When they talk about recurrent expenditure, they say it is about workers salary. Do a calculation of what really goes to the workers out of that recurrent. What percentage really goes to Nigerian workers and what percentage of recurrent goes to political appointees?
“Here, it is in our country that we have retinue of political appointees. We will insist that the fortune of Nigerian workers has to be good because we create the wealth and that we are determined to do and nobody is going to stop us.”
Credit: Daily Independent (Nigeria)
