News Rendezvous

A Public Affairs Analyst and an APC chieftain, Martins Dickson, says he was taken aback by NLC’s acceptance of N70, 000 as minimum wage saying it was far below what he expected the labour union would settle for having earlier demanded for a minimum wage of N250, 000.

He queried that long period of haggling and back and forth would have been avoided and that it is both a misplacement of priority and waste of Nigeria’s time.

Martins made the remarks while responding to questions during a PlusTV program, Business insight, over the weekend.

Marting said, “Settling for a minimum wage of N70,000 is just a way of postponing the evil day because we would still get back to it sooner than later as long as the economy is not fixed. Inflation is still high somewhere between 30% to 40%.

“The price of fuel beyond the reach of so many Nigerians and the prices of goods and services are still high. As long as the economy still remains in disarray, we are still going no where and the matter of minimum wage will still come up not too far from now.”

Speaking on the economy he said, “We have to find a way to address the rut in the economy, re-engineer the manufacturing sector, address the issue of power and boost supply of petroleum products in order to crash prices down, create a condusive atmosphere for businesses to thrive, if we don’t do that, the minimum wage will not help that much until the economy becomes stable.

“I heard the labour union chairman saying they agreed to the minimum wage because there is a provisor for a review of the wage after every three years.
But I have not heard labour talking about the real issues which is fixing the economy. Even if N500000 approved as minimum wage, we will still come back to reality, the economy because it still won’t be enough.”

On the issue of some state governors and the organised private sector claiming they would not be able to pay the approved minimum wage and that even at N30,000 some governors have been owing public servants salaries, the public affairs expert said, “Most of our states like the federal government operate a mono economy that depends on the federal government’s allocations to survive except of course states like Lagos, Kano and few other states. Just as the economy has not been diversified at the federal level, it has been the same at state level.

“Agriculture is a sector that most states could key into and create a sustainable economy that is independent of the federal government but what is obtainable now is that our state governors have become indolent and relaxed waiting for handouts from the top.

“This situation has dampen creativity and innovation among our youths and there has been the dearth of creativity and innovation in terms of diverse ways of generating revenue across the country and so many young people and enterprising Nigerians have been weakened and the economy of the country in general has been slowed down.

“As long as this situation persist, the state governors will keep up the narrative that they can’t pay minimum wage. This is besides the massive corruption ongoing at the subnational.

“State governors have resort to implementing projects that only satisfy their ego and recoup the funds back into their pockets instead of projects that directly affect the people or guarantee a sustainable income and revenue for the state.
“And these state governors implement such projects that positively affect the lives and livelihood of the masses in massive quantum but instead they chose to embark on the construction of flyovers and roads and I wonder whether that was what state governors were elected the do.

“And on the other hand the private sector too can’t pay and what is affecting them is the volatility and instability of the economy.

On the issue of whether the review of minimum wage by FG after every three years could solve Nigeria’s problems, Martins said, “Yes it could solve only one problem, preventing labour from shutting down the economy by going on strike other than that, it will not help the economy.

“The only way that would solve Nigeria’s problem is if the wage review runs concurrently with a drastic action to address the problems bedeviling our economy by boosting production.

“I am more disturbed with the comment of the president of the NLC that the president said if they are to pay N250000 they would have to increase the pump price of PMS, and I wonder if there is no way for this country to run our economy or fund projects unless by increasing the pump price of fuel? Here we are in an economy that cannot refine it’s petroleum products and pump in enough petroleum products to crash prices down.

“If we can successfully push supply up to match demands, we can achieve stability and to push supply up, our refineries must begin to work.

“Someone made a joke recently that we used to be a country that export crude oil and import refined products and now with the coming on board of a private refinery we have a situation where we now inport crude oil and export refined products.
“We cannot make headway without fixing the economy.”

On the members of the House of Representatives plans to reduce their salaries by 50% for six months in reaction to the planned nationwide protest over hardship, he said, “The reduction is cosmetic and it’s just a ploy to appease workers and prevent the protest from happening.
“What I was expecting is for the national assembly to pass a Bill into law to mandate a reduction in cost of governance reducing the excess allowances from the presidency, the Senate, and the judiciary, then Nigerians will know that they mean business.”