The current Labour versus Federal Government of Nigeria’s minimum wage negotiations have been very interesting indeed. Some would say harrowing. Others could even find comedy in the rather comic attempts at seriousness in some of the hallowed law-making chambers of the National Assembly. A rainbow of emotions and interpretations. For someone that has taken part in such negotiations in the corporate world, I find the disparity a bit unsettling.
It is usual for the employees (represented by Labour leaders in this case) to make huge demands beyond what they themselves know is unrealistic. That leaves them a window to negotiate downwards and give the impression of reasonable partners to the other side. The one with the knife and yam (the Federal Government team) initially makes an offer they know is ridiculous hoping that as they inch upwards, the nation will show understanding and put pressure on Labour to be reasonable and demonstrate understanding and patriotism on an empty stomach. This see-saw can go on for a long time, though in some cases, there has been a give and take that shortened the process to the joy of both sides and the on-looking public.
Irreconcilable differences between Labour and the government have led to a breakdown of the negotiations. A strike was called even though the FG should have seen that coming and foreclosed it through a more altruistic approach and reasonable minimum wage offer. What the government did not foresee and anticipate was that the national greed, sorry, the national grid, that supplies electricity, and sometimes darkness, could be shut down by Ajaero and Osifo’s comrades. And they did.
Some Nigerians didn’t feel its impact except when they went to POS machines to collect cash or when they wanted to charge their phones at their neighbour’s house. They wash clothes in basins and they did not miss washing machines. They never had electricity anyway and it did not make a difference to them one way or another. The airports were shut down too. This hurt the flying public most of who were arguably outside the minimum wage victims and minimal life casualties. Labour seems to have calculated this targeted critical sectors well as it seemed to have hit where it hurts the elite most with the downtrodden suffering collateral damage.
The response was swift as the Senate, whose only high speed is manifest when passing loan approvals or reverting to the old national anthem, called Labour to a dialogue to resolve the stalemate the next day. It was good to see such issue being treated with alacrity. That the strike went into “half-time” of five working days was due principally to this intervention. Kudos to the people’s representatives. We all heaved a sigh of relief when electric power began to trickle in hours after the announcement of the break.
What was curious was the debate by lawmakers that shutting down the national grid was economic and security sabotage. They proposed that a law be made to criminalise the shutting down of the national grid. If you wear the dress that most of our senators wear, that flowing babanriga (agbada) sewn with enough materials for three people, you would understand the position of these senators! The heat inside those agbada can reach 35 degrees centigrade when the air-conditioners stop working!
I think Labour needs to prepare for the public hearing on such a bill to make the shutdown of the national grid a criminal offence. Their argument should simply be that the senators, distinguished citizens all, made a spelling mistake in the heading of the bill. That it ought, and should be corrected, to “National Greed”. The massive greed that has pauperised the citizens who watch in utter disgust their humongous emoluments and opulent lifestyle.
Let’s calculate the number of years of wages the millions spent on procuring a senator’s SUV would pay. At N160,000,000 naira per SUV and at N30,000 minimum wage at the time, that would pay 5,333 men per month. Put differently, it will pay a minimum wage earner for 444 months or 37 years! That’s one man’s car. And that’s not the only car. The other big allowances of a senator, most of whom merely nay, aye or snore, when added on would make the figure above seem like a child’s play. It is this situation that a “minimum wage take-home pay which no longer takes a worker home” needs to be addressed by curbing the greed in the National Assembly. That is what the legislation should be about.
Did a distinguished senator, who is a former governor possibly on state pension from his Middle Belt state, not unabashedly state that he would not be able to pay N100,000 monthly to each of his four drivers? Those drivers, presumably, have families – kids that go to school, mouths to feed, transportation to, and from, the distinguished senator’s residence, healthcare and other issues of life. And, pray, what does the senator need four drivers for? Let me guess. One for him, one for school runs, one for madam, one for side something pickup and sundry runs. And he threw this greed into the mix to justify why Nigerian workers deserve less. Haba distinguished!
Senator Joe Biden rode in public trains to and from work all his senatorial life spanning 3 January 1973 to 15 January 2009. He did not have four drivers and was content to use public transport. Yet, he served his people and country meritoriously and got elected first as Vice President and then President. They did not even call him distinguished, but simply Joe. His wife still teaches.
Let the debate begin. And let Labour get ready to make its submissions at the public hearing to debate the bill banning the shutdown of national greed, which the honourable senators might misspell as national grid. The former is responsible for the latter. We should focus on the root cause rather than the symptoms.
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*Isikhuemen can be reached via [email protected]
