Minimum wage:APC dismisses PDP’s 120,000 proposal

The Peoples Democratic Party said the Federal Government had no justification for not paying more, and on Monday it urged organised labour to demand at least N120,000.

But the All Progressives Congress, in power, which wants to set the minimum wage at N60,000, called the PDP’s counsel to Labour disloyal.

Leading the organised labour movement, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trades Union Congress, called a national strike on Monday in protest of the Federal Government’s N60,000 minimum wage offer in favour of the N494,000 that workers were asking.

Operation at government offices, airports, schools, and hospitals was paralysed by the walkout, which also stopped the distribution of water and power.

PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary Ibrahim Abdullahi told our correspondent that the APC-led Federal Government was negotiating with Labour with dishonesty.

He maintained that since the Federal Government had been lavish, it could not claim to be short of money to pay the minimum salary of at least N120,000.

According to Abdullahi, the government is being hypocritical in its correspondence with the union leaders. Even when they began including the NLC, they never intended for Nigerians to suffer. Not that was the desired course of policy. It was meant to be a smokescreen behind which to keep lying to the people of Nigeria and the workers.

“With the lies the APC is spreading, I don’t understand why, for crying out loud, they shouldn’t be able to pay a reasonable minimum wage, if they can afford to build a road for N3tn, if they can afford to conduct all this jamboree, and if they can afford to take 1,500 government officials out of this country for things that are not important.”

“N120,000, or less, should be the reasonable minimum wage for Nigeria at this moment.” Nigerians should keep up this continuous strike if they are not able to get that minimal salary. So that, should they be genuinely elected, the authorities will be aware that some people placed them there.”

However, when reached, Bala Ibrahim, the APC Publicity Director, attacked the opposition for encouraging organised labour to oppose the administration.

“The PDP is progressively becoming something that will one day question the integrity of the Nigerian Constitution,” Ibrahim said.

Believe me, there would have been no wage at all if the PDP had won the election; it would not have been a question of minimum pay. So they spoke it out of a lack of patriotism, rage, and the resentment of losing an election.

The APC Publicity Director acknowledged the suffering facing the nation but called the NLC and TUC’s demand for the N494,000 minimum wage ludicrous.

Ibrahim remarked, “The workers union ought to use reason in the bargaining process. They ought to negotiate with their conscience, patriotism, justice, and fairness. The population of Nigeria is above 250 million.

“They should also exhibit compassion for the remaining 80 percent of Nigerians who frequent the same market as these workers, have no one to pay them, and are struggling to make ends meet, while they are negotiating for workers who make up less than 20 percent of the population.”

We concur that there is suffering in the country, but please, while discussing your people, do it fairly. What benefits oneself benefits others as well. You are asking for N500,000 per month in a nation where there are many unemployed people and insufficient resources! That strikes me as being immoral, illogical, and unethical.

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