Address the issue of minimum wage to prevent strikes, Shehu Sani advises FG.
Comment
The minimum wage issue needs to be solved, according to former Kaduna politician Shehu Sani, in order to prevent organized labor strikes.
This was said by Sani on Thursday during an interview with Arise Television.
He added, “The Nigerian federal government can address the issue of raising the minimum wage.”
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Sani said, “I don’t know how a Nigerian can survive with less than N100,000 if you break down what the government is offering N45,000-48,000, you will see how unrealistic it is by the time you factor in many things. The position taken by labor should be considered by the government.
“It is one thing agreeing to increase the minimum wage and then the capacity to pay. Let us not forget that in the last few years, the government has been finding it difficult to even pay the ones that I already have on paper, so how this could be reflected should be considered.
“But from what we have learned since the withdrawal of subsidy, the government has more money and there’s no better way to effectively and productively spend it than to increase the minimum wage of Nigerian workers to a reasonable point where he can adequately take care of his family,” he said.
Expanding on the matter, Sani stated that the government possesses the means to establish a minimum salary of N615,000 and that providing a livable wage for laborers is a commendable notion that need to be taken into account, but at a “reasonable point.”
Sani further emphasized that people are unhappy because they feel like they are the only ones making sacrifices for the economy.
“Economic reforms are taking place in this country, there are consequences for the reforms. They are supposed to be sacrifices but it should be across the board.
“Workers are seeing that money is coming in trillions, they want their own share. When a nation subsidises, it makes more value for wages but when they are removed, you have to pay for it,” he said.
