…says government workers not more than 4M personnel
By Udesinanna Stephen
The All Progressive Congress (APC) Chieftain, Adamu Garba has lamented over the demands for increased wages by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), saying that fuel subsidy was removed to save, but 70% of national wealth is now spent on civil servants.
He said this lately on his X handle @adamugarba while commenting on the Labour Force wages crisis.
“The Federal Government grants a wage award of N35,000 (thirty-five thousand Naira) only to all Federal Government workers beginning from the month of September pending when a new national minimum wage is expected to have been signed into law.” The Channels reported yesterday.
The APC Chieftain said, “We must negotiate with caution. We must not continue spending 70% of our budget on civil servants’ salaries, remove subsidies to earn more for development, increase the minimum wage yet again for the civil service and end up spending all the subsidy gains on salaries: a clear vicious circle.
“I think the level of push over the NLC and TUC are hanging on the FG is not sustainable. The total number of government workers in the country; including FG, States and LGAs, are not more than 4M personnel. Meanwhile the total number of labor force is more than 65M. Almost 61M are coming from the private sector.”
According to him, the non governmental sectors will suffer a level of injustice as only federal government workers will have wage increment. In his words, “With us as private employers of labor, how do they want us to cope? How would the government be for us too? If you force us to increase the minimum wage of all our staff beyond what our income can handle, it means retrenchment across many private companies.
“The truth of the matter is, we are at crossroads; a proverbial battle between body and soul: We either choose our bodily pleasure by eating everything today and damn the consequences from tomorrow, our we choose our soul by enduring the pains of now for the overall benefit of tomorrow. May God save our country, Nigeria.” He noted.
