A Non Governmental Organization, Citizens Rights Forum has opposed the alleged plan to move the national minimum wage from the exclusive list of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria describing such as anti democratic expedition.
This is contained in a press release issued by the Executive secretary of the forum, Comrade Sanni Baba.
The statement read in parts:”The attention of the Citizens Free Service Forum (CFSF) has been drawn to speculations suggesting fresh moves by the National Assembly through its Joint Committee on the Judiciary to allegedly remove the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive Legislative List and transfer same to the Concurrent Legislative List of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We totally condemned this move and say it is anti democratic.
“The specific section of the constitution targeted is Schedule 1, Item 34 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) which deals with the following: Trade Unions; Industrial Relations; Conditions, Safety and Welfare of Labour; Industrial Disputes; National Minimum Wage for the Federation or any part thereof; and Industrial Arbitration.
“We condemn this crude and insensitive gesture from those who were voted into office with a mandate to make laws for the good and welfare of workers and the broader citizenry of Nigeria.
“This current move is not the first time the National Assembly is embarking on such a public nauseating venture, we had thought such had ended but very surprised that is is coming up this time and we take exception to it.
“It is deeply harrowing and traumatizing to imagine that the real value of the national minimum wage by historical foreign exchange comparison and naira devaluation had plummeted from N300,000 in 1981 to the current N30,000. This means that a Nigerian worker who entered service in 1981 had been earning backwards into poverty in geometric proportions from then till now.
It is exhaustively difficult to find a word to describe this proletariat consumption. To think that some ultra-insular lawmakers are cooking the replacement of whatever remains of the vestige of earned wages in Nigeria with outright slave wages does not only overthrow our humanity but also deconstructs society itself, mocks our civilization, cripples our sovereignty and returns us to Hobbesian existence where life is short, nasty and brutish!
Asides concerns for workers’ welfare and the general overflow of decent wages on the wellbeing of the wider society, there are also genuine apprehension on the chaos the transfer of the national minimum wage from the exclusive list to the concurrent list portends for businesses and investors.
This means that investors and business owners would need to deal with thirty seven different sets of labour laws and minimum wage structures across the thirty six states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
We hereby asked the National Assembly to stop the proposed action and focus on more people oriented policies and programs.